To Be A Master
by NightFall-sensei
Summary: Both a song and a new story about people who believe that in order to truly become a master you have to break a few rules. OCs only, no canon characters, OCs will be accepted throughout the duration of this story while it is here. Sayonara.
1. Chapter 1

This is my newest fanfic. Pokémon based and this time around I'm gonna need help from the audience. For my fanfic, which is all OCs, I will need your help for ideas on what kind of people I should use; in your reviews if you wish to submit an OC list their name, age, gender, physical description, history for the fun of it, single Pokémon partner, and country of origin; e.g. China, U.S.A., Japan, Zimbabwe, Djibouti, the works. And for the final note; don't everyone pick the same countries to keep things fresh. Onegai-Shimasu.

**DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NO CONNECTIONS TO POKEMON HOWEVER MUCH I LIKE TO THINK I DO. PLEASE DON'T REPORT ME FOR A SUIT FILE.**

International Tournament File 001: To Be A Master

Chaos; that's all anyone knew about anything. Pokémon battling had changed; trainers are now only allowed to have one Pokémon and to register that Pokémon as a legal partner with them in sanctioned Pokémon battles fought for the International Tournament. Those who harbor more than one Pokémon are outlaws and constantly fight for their freedom to choose how many Pokémon they should be allowed to be in their care. This story is about people who believe that in order to be a master you have to be willing to break the rules…

Location; Concord, New Hampshire

Time; 20:30

"Bam! Bam! Bam!" whatever was out there kept hitting the door repeatedly. On the outside several police officers are pushing on a presumably locked apartment door using large weights on battery rams in a vain attempt to open it…meaning that a giant Pokémon was blocking the door behind them.

The room was dark, too dark for anyone to see anything except for the lit lamp in the center of the room. He sat in a large armchair under the lamp revealing his face from the mouth down, the mouth revealing a straight look while reading a book. The banging continued as he finally grew irritated by it. He walked over to the Pokémon and patted it on the shoulder.

"That's good enough, Bouffalant, may as well let them in, oh and make sure you greet them very graciously." He said.

The bison Pokémon moved silently in the darkness with only the easily recognizable afro visible. The police tried once more opening the door meeting with Bouffalant at the same instance.

"Wild Charge!" the boy said from his chair.

Bouffalant lifted its body that began glowing in a silhouette of its physical appearance and charged the men sending the three officers flying out the door just from the electro-shockwaves it produced from its attack. The boy closed the door behind them when another officer entered the door. She entered the room and pulled out a pair of handcuffs and walked towards the boy. Bouffalant took a step towards her and the boy put a hand out to calm him down.

"Officer Jennifer Peterson, been a while, makes it two weeks?"

"Can the sweet talk kid you're under arrest on grounds of illegal battling in a public area around minors."

"Unless you have probable evidence I'll have Bouffalant show you out of my home by force."

"You call this a home, delinquent?"

The boy's eyes dilated at the sound of that word as he tried to calm himself with a bit of success. The boy stood up from his chair and walked towards the young officer.

"Bouffalant, I'll ask you one more time, send her away! Wild Charge!"

Bouffalant made the same move as last time this time slightly striking the officer launching her out the door. The boy continued to glare at her for calling him that word; "delinquent". The boy walked back into his house as the police retreated saying the tired old saying, "you won't get away with this!" As the boy turned the overhead light on and turning off the lamp and retreating back to his armchair. He told Bouffalant to take a load off and join him in quiet harmony. The two sat like that for about a minute or less than that and then just turned on the TV after a small look at each other.

Bouffalant began to eat his feed out of the already prepared dish waiting for it at the edge of the kitchen in the apartment. The show that began playing was soon interrupted by late-breaking news showing the young female news anchorwoman.

"Are Pokémon trainers getting violent with even our cities finest? Registered Pokémon trainer Andrew…no last name had just been seen attacking Officer Jennifer Peterson and several other police officers who attempted to arrest the youth on grounds of suspicion of illegal battling in school settings aside from official battle arenas."

"Ah, shut-up!" the boy said.

As the anchorwoman said, his name is Andrew but no last name. A Pokémon trainer whose partner, Bouffalant, have been through everything together including time in jail on grounds of illegal battling. Bouffalant, despite being a Normal-Type Pokémon, has proven useful against any and all elements of Pokémon that it has battled against including Ghost-Types.

Andrew turned off the TV and bid Bouffalant a good night. Andrew lied awake in his bed thinking about why all this happened. From what he was told Pokémon became so violent with their trainers that the police enforced this rule to keep people safe from rampaging Pokémon, but that's just one of many conspiracy theories. Bouffalant entered his room and went to sleep next to his bed as Andrew stroked the very recognizable afro hairstyle. He too went to sleep with the same wish he had had every day since his parents left.

"I wish for a better tomorrow…" he said under his breath, and then fell asleep.

Ring! Ring! Ring! The alarm clock continued to ring in repetitions of three in a vain attempt to wake Andrew up for school. Bouffalant already awake smashed the alarm clock quiet without breaking it and simply used a Body Slam attack to wake him up. A split-second before he landed Andrew opened his eyes to see Bouffalant three inches away from his face.

"!" he screamed as Bouffalant kept a comfortable position on him. "DON'T YOU DARE! NO, DON'T, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" and will leave the rest of the wake-up schedule for the imagination. (Pulls on collar.)

On the way to school Bouffalant carried his incapacitated trainer on his back with a smug look on his face with a slight chuckle as Andrew gave a hysteric chuckle after dealing with "Commander Stinky". As the two entered the school several people began to stare at them with looks of terror just based on the allegations against him. At his high school Pokémon are allowed to be outside their PokéBall but must remain under supervision of the trainer at all times.

Andrew regained consciousness and entered his class with Bouffalant tailing behind him. He took his place at the higher area of the classroom due to his Pokémon's enormous size. The teacher arrived and began class with a small announcement.

"As most of you know, our friend Andrew is a wanted fugitive now for assaulting an officer in the line of duty." He explained.

"Bite me!" he said from the top of the class.

"Nevertheless! We will continue to treat him as though he is a solid citizen without a warrant out for his arrest!"

"Yeah, like that'll happen!" he yelled out again.

"Andrew! Please step outside the class for a minute!"

"La-di-da…" he said getting up from his seat telling Bouffalant to stay put.

Outside the classroom, "What do you think you're doing in front of my class?"

"Making a fool out of you. I'd think that be obvious."

"You're just lucky I don't call your parents, I would-"

"Go ahead and try, you can call as many times as you want, they won't answer! They've been gone for five years now!"

"What?"

"Oh, you think that it's their fault for how I am? No! I live by myself, I take care of myself and my Pokémon, and because of that there's been a stereotypical view of me that because I'm a legal orphan I automatically am this delinquent who decides that it'll be okay if I just break a couple laws! I've been isolated from the rest of the world for no good reason!"

"How did your parents die?"

"Die? They left me on some crazy adventure the day after I got Bouffalant, and it's just been the two of us since that day! I don't conform to the rules because that's what drove my parents away and leave me to fend for myself!"

He began panting as the teacher tried in a vain attempt to comfort him placing a hand on his shoulder as he just threw it aside.

"I don't need your sympathy, what I need is for my opinion to be recognized and respected among other things. I know that in order to be a Pokémon master I will break the rules. Specifically the big one."

"You can't be serious."

"As the plague."

After he said that final sentence an alarm went off for a lock-down procedure, as in most educational settings when an intruder is on campus the administration puts the campus in lock-down forcing all students into the classes. The teacher pulled Andrew into the class and locked the door. Andrew looked out the other window to find a wandering Pokémon on the grounds.

"Maractus" he said under his breath. "The cactus Pokémon. It uses up-tempo sounds and dancing to drive away its natural enemies; the bird Pokémon who target the seeds of its flower."

"What was that Andrew?" the teacher asked, the students all clutching their Pokémon in terror.

"I know what the problem is" he said opening the window and returning Bouffalant to its special PokéBall known as a HeavyBall. "And I'm gonna go fix it."

Andrew jumped from the window and sent Bouffalant from its ball and landed on him with ease. Maractus turned its attention to them and charged with a Needle Arm attack. The Needle Arm hit Bouffalant but did minimal damage due to its high HP levels. Andrew dismounted Bouffalant and ordered him to use Wild Charge. Again uses and electrified tackle Bouffalant hit Maractus but as Maractus did earlier, minimal damage because of the negative effect of electricity on grass. Maractus again used Needle Arm but added a bit more oomph into it actually causing Bouffalant noticeable pain. Bouffalant charged it like a mad bull and hit it dead-on with a Horn Attack. Maractus was launched back and went into unconsciousness. Andrew stared at it for a moment and thought about what he had witnessed; a Pokémon who had been able to noticeably harm his Bouffalant even though it had been mentally toughened up while the two were in prison. Andrew smiled and pulled out another spare PokéBall. The teachers and students kept telling him no and to leave it there. Andrew looked over at Bouffalant for another opinion. Bouffalant nodded.

"Go! PokéBall!"

The ball hit Maractus who had just woken up and accepted the PokéBall, twitched three times and closed catching the Pokémon as his knew unregistered partner. He lifted the PokéBall to the sky as several students began clapping. Soon the whole attendance erupted into thunderous applause.

"To be the best, I'm willing to break a few rules!" he shouted out to them. "Well, Bouffalant, I guess my wish finally came true…"

Location; Osaka, Japan

Time; 17:45

The ball was thrown and hit the Pokémon and captured it within a few seconds. The PokéBall just lied there as the figure picked it up. A large tarantula Pokémon followed him as they both looked at each other with looks of satisfaction.

"Well, Denchura, looks like this our first step to becoming Pokémon masters. And in order to do so, we will have to break some major rules. To be the best, I'm willing to break a few rules!"

…

End chapter one.

This is just an idea of mine so please don't flame it when you read it. There will be more characters introduced as time goes on; loosely based off of people in my family and significant others.

Sayonara.


	2. Chapter 2

Well, so far it's been a pretty busy day. Already three reviews and it's the only the first day on this new story. Just as a small recap; Andrew, a Pokémon trainer and an activist against the rules in place for many trainers to own only one Pokémon, had recently broken that one major rule and captured with his partner, the bison Pokémon Bouffalant, a medium size cactus Pokémon named Maractus. Although, at the end of the chapter another appears…a young man from Japan who had also recently captured an unknown Pokémon with his partner, Denchura. Who is this person? What does he want? And what is connection to Andrew's beliefs?

**DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NO CONNECTIONS TO POKEMON HOWEVER MUCH I LIKE TO THINK I DO. PLEASE DON'T REPORT ME FOR A SUIT FILE.**

International Tournament File 002: To Write a New Chapter

Location; Osaka, Japan

Time; 2:15 AM

He walked alone in the silence of the night, illuminated only by the reflection of moon. The only other with him was a large tarantula Pokémon named Denchura. They reached a precinct of the NPA (National Police Agency) and slowly opened the door to find other officers waiting for him. Some looked at him with indifference and others scowl because of his Pokémon, but nonetheless, he's one of them.

"So finally decided to show up, eh?" one of the officers asked.

"Let's just get our job done, okay?" the young boy asked in return.

"Whoa-ho, look who's finally started to get some backbone." The officer said and picked him up by the collar.

The boy began choking and the Denchura struck the man on the head with an electrically charged sphere. The boy was dropped and began gasping for air. The oldest of the officers stepped from the shadows and looked at the scene with Denchura's hairs standing on end.

"Alright that's enough, save your strength for the riffraff out there. And you, Gijo, keep that thing under control next time. Yeah, you're young but that's no excuse."

As the officer said the boy's name is Gijo. It's not his real name, but hey, when you can barely remember squat it's a pretty good thing to have. Gijo is a twelve year old guardsman at the Osaka district for the NPA. He lost his memory after his parents supposedly died, three years ago leaving him with nothing but a legacy. His parents were the most powerful tag-team in all Japan with the Charizard and Blastoise they had trained since, like, birth. Everyone expected him to follow in their footsteps, and was given a Bulbasaur to train at that time. Gijo turned it away and ran far away. From Nara all the way to the forest areas of Osaka he ran with nothing but his willpower. Eventually losing all resolve to live Gijo collapsed in heap and was supposedly rescued by the NPA. But, only he knows that the one to save him that day was his Pokémon partner, Denchura. Denchura found him collapsed and panicked bringing him to its cave Denchura tried thinking of something to do but just eventually grew to be a part of the boy's missing spirit. Now the two work for the NPA, but for reasons unknown.

"I'll see what I can do about him, sir." He said bowing.

"That's better. Now, Gijo your assignment for the next week or so until her trial is to keep a watchful eye on this girl." He said leading in an American girl. "She was found at the airport with no passport and her Pokémon seems to be fairly odd around her. Until the results of her trial, she is convicted of illegal entry into the country, and possible GTP, Grand Theft Pokémon. Watch as though your life depended on it."

"…very well then." He said now leading the girl obviously older than her.

Down in the containment area Gijo placed her in a locked area and sat next to the cell. The girl seemed terrified out of her wits. Gijo put down his newspaper and turned his attention to her.

"Do you wanna talk?" he asked.

"What?" she asked as though she didn't even understand.

"Ah that's right, she's from America." He said. "Would you like to talk to pass the time?" he said in flawless English.

"What do I have to say to you? You're no better than the people who lock up trainers in America for voicing their opinion."

"Yeah, you got a point…"

"And another thing…what?"

"You're undeniably right. We always say that we're nonjudgmental but in reality we're the most judgmental. We see you Americans as a threat right off the bat and put you under surveillance from the time you get here to the time you leave. That's why I just wanna talk to you to prove I'm not like them."

"Okay, what do you wanna talk about?" she asked.

"Well, first what's your name?"

"Laura, but everyone else just calls me Star."

"Why 'Star'?"

"Because I've been number one at everything I've ever tried. So it's like being called a superstar, but they just called me 'Star'."

"You must've had a nice life in America."

"Yeah right. My parents were the most non-compatible people you would've ever met. They fought for so long that my mother and I had to run away. A couple of years ago my mother remarried, and I like my new step-dad, but just last month we got a call from him saying that if I didn't comeback he would kill us all. My mom and step-dad told me to run away and they would be fine, and then they gave me that Pokémon on the desk over there."

"How do you know that's not another PokéBall?" Gijo asked.

"On the white underside it'll read, 'To my dear Star, I wish you happiness in life and know that this Pokémon is your destined partner and that with his help you will always be here with us. ~Love, Mom.'" She began to produce tears in her eyes after reading the letter by heart.

Gijo reached into the cell and patted her shoulder with a confident smile on his face.

"Thank-you, Star."

"For what?"

"Giving me reason to believe you. I now have the evidence that I need to get you out of here tonight."

"What?"

"Trust me…"

The two talked about what their lives had been like since they were on their own and found most of it was similar. Gijo gave a warm smile after seeing Star laugh about her own experiences with her Pokémon who, to Gijo, was still unknown. Still curios about the plan that Gijo had cooked up Star tried to get him to talk about it with no results.

"They watch this place, thankfully they can't read lips."

Gijo gave a small symbol in the camera lens and the camera moved in kind. Gijo smiled and turned his attention to Star.

"What was all that about?" she asked.

"Star, I am Gijo Nakamura. I am an agent of the secret OPR agency, Organization for Pokémon Rights. My job is to infiltrate areas like this over long periods of time to help trainers in need. This" he said as the door opened. "Is my fellow conspirator, Officer Satoshi Tanaka." Behind him appeared the officer that began the fight with him earlier.

"Keys?" Tanaka asked holding the large ring of keys.

"If you would be so kind." Gijo replied

Officer Tanaka opened the cell and bowed to Star treating her as though she were a princess. Gijo did the same offering her the PokéBall sitting on the desk in motionlessness. The three ran past the hallways steering clear of the other officers and hiding in the most confined spaces. Star kept an anxious look on her face as she kept staring at the PokéBall.

"Gijo, I have a confession."

"If it has anything to do with what happens during a honeymoon, I don't wanna hear it."

"No, I should hope not. The reason they arrested me was because of my Lucario."

"I don't follow." Tanaka said.

"Lucario is a Pokémon that evolves through extreme trust between a trainer and their Riolu. My mother evolved this Pokémon and I never helped, it doesn't trust me and the NPA wants to abuse that fact. They want to use my mom's Lucario."

Tears began falling from Star's eyes as Gijo tried to comfort her.

"I don't know why your mom's Lucario doesn't like you and it really doesn't have a reason. You show that you have kindness in your heart for it and Lucario, being the aura Pokémon, should be able to feel and respect that."

Satoshi gave an all-clear symbol and the three made their move. They made their way slowly into the captain's office and confronted him. The captain turned slowly in his chair to face them.

"Well, hello boys. Can I help you and the waste over there?"

"Game's over, buddy." Satoshi said confidently. "We now have the evidence to bring you in."

"Well, now I doubt that. Officers front and center." The officers began piling in by the dozens. "We have us some dirties. Take care of 'em."

Several of the officers threw PokéBall after PokéBall sending out Growlithe and Arcanine by the dozens. The officers all ordered the first wave to attack. Star cringed when they all stopped. Stuck to the ground as though caught in a web, no pun intended, Denchura dropped from the ceiling and activated ElecNet. The Pokémon caught in the web were instantly shocked with who knows how much voltage. Satoshi sent out his own Pokémon; after the light receded it was shown to be a Machamp, the Super-Power Pokémon. The Machamp grappled most Pokémon that were left but not able to get them all. Gijo turned to her with a near desperate face and yelled out to her, "Send out Lucario, at this rate he may be our only hope!"

Star obeying out of instinct threw the PokéBall and the Lucario made his entrance. Star called out on of its moves with no response from Lucario. Star's head came down in an instant as Lucario laid back and began to take a nap.

"She wasn't kidding" Gijo said under his breath. "That Pokémon really doesn't listen to her."

Star was still mulling when a hand came over her mouth and a Magmar confronted Lucario.

"Maybe if you were a better trainer this Lucario would listen to you." The captain said appearing form the shadows.

"Let her go!" Gijo yelled.

"Really, you think that if you tell me to I'll just let her go like that." the captain taunted.

"No! I believe you will let go when you're about to get crushed."

"By what, that overgrown tarantula?"

"No, by this Golem!" Gijo yelled throwing a PokéBall.

The rock-type Pokémon came out and instantly knocked out the captain with a Mega-Punch. Golem turned to face Magmar and made a motion of challenge as the last of the Arcanine were defeated. Magmar turned to face golem but received another attack from the opposite direction.

All in attendance and consciousness looked over at the Lucario with a fire burning in its eyes. Star stood up with the same fire in her eyes.

"Lucario, what do you say we teach these guys who really is the hottest battler around?" Lucario nodded in response. "Fire Punch!"

Lucario hit the Magmar with a punch engulfed in flames that seemed to do more damage than it normally should. Gijo and Satoshi kept looking at the ensuing battle between Magmar and some girl who seemed completely different from who she was before. Both gulped out of worry based on the power she began to display between her and Lucario. What's more, she seemed different in the eyes, from her usual worried eyes to now confident and strong eyes.

"Finish it, Aura Sphere!"

The ball of concentrated energy hit Magmar and launched it back several yards into the other defeated Pokémon. Star joined the other two and fell into Gijo's arms unconscious.

"What is this girl?" Satoshi asked.

"A regular Jekyll and Hide. Twin personalities each with their own way of looking at themselves."

"What're gonna do?"

"I'm gonna stay with her and find out how she can be left with one person left to be who she really wants to be." Gijo said.

Golem and Denchura carried the two trainers to Gijo's apartment building while Lucario walked on his own staring and smiling at the twin psyche person. When they got to the house Gijo noticed something in his mailbox.

"Dear Gijo Nakamura and Star,

You are cordially invited to compete for the chance to become representatives in the upcoming International Pokémon Battle Tournament. Please come to place labeled in the note.

Japanese Congress of Pokémon Battles Chairman."

…

Location; Madrid, Spain

Time; 7:02

At the computer a silent figure goes through program after program with a large meditating Pokémon next to him. A small icon appears on the screen in the shape of the virtual Pokémon Porygon.

"Darmanitan" he says to the large Pokémon. "We are going to have to break a few rules today, but it'll all be worth it if it helps us become the masters we want to be. Come on out now Cyber."

The Porygon jumped out of the computer and took his side.

"Let's begin."

Chapter 2 complete. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the person for the idea of the OC Star. Be expected to see her a lot and as for the others I'll see to it that your OCs make an entrance as well.


	3. Chapter 3

Here comes chapter three of my new Pokémon Fanfic. To recap; two characters have been introduced as Andrew and Gijo. But now in Madrid, a new player already armed with two Pokémon has come into the game. What has the insane laws of Pokémon done to him? How does he fit into all of this, and how does this all fit into the World Championship altogether.

**DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NO CONNECTIONS TO POKEMON HOWEVER MUCH I LIKE TO THINK I DO. PLEASE DON'T REPORT ME FOR A SUIT FILE.**

International Tournament File 003: Don't Forget About Psychic

In the dimly lit room the boy continued to type at an incredible rate. The two Pokémon next to him sat in total silence; one asleep the other meditating in the silence of its psychic power. The boy sat back into his desk chair and stretched waking up the sleeping Pokémon. The Pokémon, Porygon, came up next to him as he patted his head. The other Pokémon still stayed in its meditation in complete silence. The boy knocked on its head and spoke into what was probably his ear.

"Yo! Darmanitan, wakey-wakey!" he said.

The boy turned the over head lights on breaking the Pokémon from its meditation and its form from a statue to a fully alive Pokémon with fire on above its eyes and a round body that contained to very long arms used for walking much like an ape and two very short legs.

The boy turned to the kitchen and began baking what seemed like two cakes. One chocolate, the other a cheesecake. Filling two bowls of food of varying size for his two Pokémon. After the cakes fully heated up the boy revealed his true height as slightly over six feet. He wore a style of crew cut that he never really seemed to mind, a regular pocketed shirt that was a solid red color, a pair of brilliant blue eyes, a pair of regular blue jeans, and white sneakers. He kept an enthusiastic smile on his face as he looked out into downtown Madrid.

"Muy bueno!" he said looking out at the window.

He continued to look at the scenery and then stopped at a local Tauros fighting ring.

"Malo!" he yelled out to it.

The two Pokémon finished eating as he began to eat his eggs. After finishing he left the house with the two cakes as well as Darmanitan close behind in its active form. Porygon, on the other hand, stayed at the house inside his computer. AS he walked past local shops several people came out to greet him.

"Hola, senor!" a woman called out to him.

"Hola!" he said back.

"Ah, Senor Alejandro, bienvenido!"

"Gracias, Senor Pablo!"

As this continued it really showed how much this boy named Alejandro was liked throughout the city. He reached a small scale prison and approached it to meet the guard. The man checked his ID and allowed him access. The guard captain, who only spoke English, saw him coming and pushed the intercom. The number of prisoners was limited, two to be precise.

Alejandro took a seat at one end as the two prisoners took a seat on the other. They seemed happy to see each other as the smiled warmly at each other despite the atmosphere; the guard captain kept an insane look on his eye as he eyed all three of them as a bead of sweat dropped from Alejandro's forehead.

"Remember! No Spanish! That way I know you're not up to something!" he yelled out to them.

Alejandro looked at him with a sarcastic smile and shook his head turning his face to the two prisoners.

"Hey, how's it going for you two?" he asked.

"Horrible." The first boy said very frankly. "The food's terrible, hint-hint."

"I got ya." He said pushing the cakes through the metal detectors.

"So how's Darmanitan?" the other boy asked looking at the large Pokémon.

"Pretty good. He's up to seventeen hours of meditation. Besides that, how're guys doing with your Pokémon? Are they eating?"

"Yeah" the first one said. "They're fine. Julio over here is trying out your ingenious recipe given what we got and they seem to like it."

"Well, it was Diego's idea to add in the parsley." Julio said.

"Oh, one more thing. I have 1700 more in American money. So we're that much closer to getting you two out of here."

The two boys began to gain tears as did Alejandro. "See ya later guys." He said waving goodbye.

Alejandro is an eighteen year old trainer who, if you haven't guessed, has two of his best friends in prison. Ever since they got booked a year ago for grand theft Alejandro has worked every single day as a computer programmer to gain the money needed for bail. The courts did not specify what was stolen or why, just that it was stolen, and that was all that mattered. Alejandro, though, didn't see that as enough, so while on the job, he uses his Porygon who he named Cyber to act as an online detective breaking through firewalls of detective agencies on the case and the courts databases to find the black box.

Alejandro walked back to his house and walked past the Tauros fighting ring. He eyes narrowed and turned away in rage. At that same ring his father met with his untimely demise when a Tauros inadvertently went into a rage and attacked when the shock stopped his heart. His mother left after that and tried to find love somewhere else. The last time she was heard of, she was in the Caribbean. Ever since Alejandro has looked after both of his friends, their Pokémon, his Pokémon, and himself.

Alejandro reached his house to find the door open. He ran in with Darmanitan to find both a trainer and a Ninetales in his armchair. The trainer was female, with blonde hair reaching down to her elbows, light green eyes, a white long-sleeved dress that ended above the knees, and a red bow around her neck and her knee high boots. She gave a sly smile and chuckled as she pointed to the computer. Alejandro still wary of his visitor sat down at his computer and found Cyber trying to give him a message. Alejandro opened the message which showed a video entitled, "How to make false accusations". Alejandro opened the video and watched it for about five minutes when he found the black box.

"Who are you?" he asked realizing something important.

"My name is Rei Zwing. The beauty of Berne, Switzerland. And you can thank me for that information."

"That raises more questions than it answers. Number one: How did you get in here? Number two: How did you get this information? And number three: What do you mean 'beauty of Berne, Switzerland?'"

"Answer number one: I had Ninetales use its Ghost-type attacks force it open. Answer number: I have my ways. And answer three: I think that's obvious." She said almost playfully.

"Okay fine, that last one is still sketchy. But what do you want as 'thanks'?"

She stood up and she got up close to him. "Just a simple date." She said blushing.

Alejandro didn't flinch and after ten seconds burst out into laughter. Rei still in the same position kept a blank look as she looked down at Alejandro still laughing his guts out.

"I don't see the joke." She said with her hands on her hips.

"You mean saying 'Just a simple date' isn't a joke in itself?" he said still laughing. "First, date's can never be simple. Second, even if that were remotely possible why would I? I'm busy enough as it is. Finally, why would you make that request to a guy like me?"

Rei punched the top of his head with a disgruntled look on her face. She then breathed out calmly and snapped her fingers.

"Ninetales, show this poor boy I'm serious. Flamethrower!"

Ninetales jumped up and shot a constant stream of fire that reached Alejandro's directed. Darmanitan jumped in front of it and continued to take damage. Alejandro counted down from five and when he reached one Darmanitan eyes shone a spectral blue as he began meditating as he did this morning.

"Psychic!" Alejandro ordered.

Darmanitan pushed the fire back at Ninetales sending it back into the armchair. Rei ran over to the Ninetales and looked over at the Zen mode Darmanitan and his kind trainer as he sprayed a Hyper Potion on him to heal the damage taken. Rei began shuffling through her bag to find no potions meaning she would have to travel across town. She turned around to scream at him to find a Hyper Potion being handed to her. Alejandro looked down at her with an indifferent expression as he motioned for her to take it.

"Why're you helping me?" she asked.

"Because you helped me." He said kneeling down petting the Ninetales. "You've given me information to help with an endeavor I've had to put up with for an entire year."

"Huh?"

"My best friends are in jail for stealing something and I never knew what? That video on my laptop may be my only shot to get them out within the week before their trainer licenses are revoked."

"You're welcome I guess. How long have you had Darmanitan?" she asked.

"Makes it ten years. He came into the ring of the Tauros fighting ring and I saved him from being stomped when he was still Darumaka. Ever since I had him as my partner. Cyber came to me as Spam Mail and opened itself looking for a trainer and I've had him for four years. What about you and Ninetales?"

"We came from a wealthy family who dealt in jewels and other precious stones. My father never let me or my little sister battle with Pokémon seeing how dirty it was. Instead, we were trained to be show women in contests. I got Vulpix when I was eight and never let go. When it evolved I knew that contests were never our thing so we set off on our own. We made our way battling in official battles as the Unstoppable Team. Sometimes it gets to my head, so be ready for that."

"I don't like where that last part leads." Alejandro said.

"That's right, I'm coming with you. Any chance to battle we'll take." She declared.

Alejandro and Darmanitan both gave looks of udder shock even though Darmanitan was still in Zen mode. Alejandro contemplated saying otherwise, but what he had seen it would be like poking an Arbok with a stick, you don't know when it will snap but eventually it will. The two walked down to courthouse to deliver the information. Rei kept her eyes on Alejandro as he kept a smile on his face with Darmanitan in Zen mode following him with a blank stare. She went down to look at Ninetales who stared at her and nodded.

"Hey, Alejandro-"

"We're here." He said before she could finish.

The two of them walked into the head judge's office where he was working. Alejandro walked up to him with near anger with him as Rei walked while turning spying all the upholstery and the glass models.

"Disculpe, senor?" Alejandro asked as he put his laptop on the judge's office.

"Lo que es?" the judge asked looking at the laptop.

"Esto demuestra mis amigos son inocentes." He said showing the laptop to him.

"Realmente?" he asked looking slightly nervous.

"Si. Por favor ver." He requested as the video played.

The movie played and after five minutes it showed two people resembling Julio and Diego at a used car lot and a small blink that resumed that showed them as they fought off the guards as they drove the car away. The movie ended and the judge rubbed the tops of his eyes.

"Tiempo para confesar." Alejandro said as he pointed an accusing finger.

Rei began clapping as the judge began to try to run out of the door. Rei snapped her fingers and ordered Ninetales to use Fire Spin. The vortex trapped him and left him at the mercy of two of the most powerful Fire-types ever seen in Madrid.

He chuckled as he pulled out a PokéBall and threw it on the inside of the vortex. The light receded and revealed an Arbok. _Great,_ Alejandro said to himself. The Arbok attacked Darmanitan with a powerful Crunch attack inflicting super effective sending it flying out of the vortex.

"Arbok! Poison Sting!" he ordered.

Arbok obeyed and attacked Ninetales with a shower of toxic darts. The few that did hit were blocked by psychic power that was revealed to be Darmanitan on the outside of the vortex still in his Zen. Rei smiled as she saw Alejandro keeping Darmanitan stable. Alejandro looked over at Rei and nodded. Rei looked at the vortex and stared at it as though she could see into it. She blew a kiss and ordered Ninetales to use Attract. Ninetales fired a charm at Arbok and caused a strong infatuation to Ninetales as the Pokémon in question practically ordered it to attack its trainer. Arbok did just that as the vortex receded. The judge saw Rei as she winked at him.

"That's what happens you battle against the unstoppable team of Rei Zwing and her Ninetales." She said as she left him to the mercy of an infatuated Arbok.

Well…just use your imagination as to what happens next (pulls on collars).

As the two walked home with their Pokémon Rei twiddled her thumbs and walked back to Alejandro's side.

"You still owe me a date. I hope you still realize that." She said quite brutally.

Alejandro halfway fell over and reemerged with crazed eyes. "Is now really the time? As if there will be a time at all!" he said walking away a bit faster.

Rei walked up closer to him as he walked faster as she copied him and giggled at him.

"Darmanitan, if you will?"

Darmanitan turned to the two of them and used Psychic to give Alejandro a little headway. Back at his apartment Alejandro sat in the dark and thought about what had happened. He sat back and saw Rei's face staring at him. He yelped and jumped back out of the chair as she dangled a letter in his face. He practically ripped it away from her as it seemed to be a strange invitation.

"To the trainers Alejandro and Rei Zwing,

You are cordially invited to represent central Europe; Spain, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Portugal, and the Netherlands, in the upcoming international tournament taking place at the location enclosed.

European Congress of Pokémon Battles Chairman."

"What in the World?" Alejandro asked out into space as Rei jumped on his back and hugged him.

…

The cell door closed shut as the prisoner hit the ground in handcuffs on his wrists.

"You had your chance, Andrew. But you decided to choose the wrong side. Now you pay!" the officer said as he grabbed his PokéBalls and set them for "release" as he forced the two Pokémon in them to be released.

Bouffalant and Maractus looked confused as a mysterious Pokémon explained to them the situation and they left with it. Andrew eyes became devastated as he put his head down in angst. He cried out with tears held onto for ten years.

"THIS ISN'T OVER!" he yelled at the officer.

Chapter three complete. Thank you for the idea for Rei Zwing. I will try to use the other OCs submitted for this story, until next time.


	4. Chapter 4

Here's chapter four of my Pokémon Fanfic. To recap; Last time we met Alejandro; a young man in Madrid attempting to bail his friends out of prison. After meeting Rei Zwing from Berne, Switzerland he gained the evidence and a strange note similar to the one received by Gijo and Star in Osaka. But what of Andrew; as of the last time we met him he had been thrown in jail and his Pokémon released and brainwashed into not remembering him. Can Andrew's resolve be what it takes to get him out prison, but this time without his best friend?

**DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NO CONNECTIONS TO POKEMON HOWEVER MUCH I LIKE TO THINK I DO. PLEASE DON'T REPORT ME FOR A SUIT FILE.**

International Tournament File 004: I Will Be Striving

Three days. For Andrew it had been three days since he was placed back in his old cell at the prison where he and Bouffalant were toughened up by reality. But at the start of those three days both Bouffalant and his new Maractus had been released, and brainwashed into believing that Andrew didn't even exist. Andrew seemed dead as he sat in the same position for hours on end moving only to eat and to lie on his back to sleep.

On his third day the guards began forcing a young boy into the same cell as Andrew. The boy was fierce almost like a Pokémon himself; he wore a hat that had two small ears on it, dark gray pants, a slightly lighter gray t-shirt, a dog collar, darker gray hiking boots, a full head of timber wolf hair, and a pair of gloves with a claw at each fingers end.

He kicked and he yelled as he was thrown into the cell while Andrew didn't even give a sideways glance.

"YOU'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO HOLD ME HERE!" he yelled out to the officers.

"Forget it kid." Andrew said. "I've been trying that for two days, it won't work. These guys, they're ruthless, they don't care about the meaning of friendship. They'll drive two best friends away from each other if they have to."

"How would you know?"

Andrew just gave an angered look at the boy and continued to do so until the boy partially understood that it meant he had that happened to him. The boy sat down next to Andrew and saw multiple scars, scratches, and other injuries.

"Did those happen in the last two days?" he asked.

"No" Andrew answered. "These are from training with a Pokémon that puts rodeo Tauros to shame."

"Really? My Pokémon's never even considered attacking me. We've been friends for nearly a year now. I think we're as close as friends can be." The boy.

"I had been with Bouffalant for five years after my parents left me for dead. There never was anyone else I could turn to talk to and get my problems to go away." Andrew explained.

"What's your name?" the boy said.

"Andrew, a trainer whose Pokémon were forcefully released, brainwashed, and told there was no me."

"Well, I'm Szac Selthez. A trainer who…well, nothing special's happened to me." The boy said.

The officer came back around and held his hand in the cell for Szac to give him the PokéBall. Szac refused when the officer reached into the cell with his entire arms and grabbed Szac by the collar. The officer ripped the PokéBall from his hand and began taking it out of the cell. Before he got it out his arm stopped. It wasn't stuck in the bars; instead Andrew had a death grip on it.

"What in the world are you doing, kid?" the officer said.

"Finding who I once was." Andrew said whacking the arm against his knee forcing him to drop the PokéBall.

"You're not gonna hear the end of this." The officer said walking away.

"ONE DAY!" Andrew yelled to him. The officer came back with a curious look on his face. "GIVE ME ONE DAY WITH ANY POKEMON AND I WILL TRAIN IT UP ENOUGH TO EARN SZAC'S FREEDOM!"

The officer raised his eyebrow and began chuckling. "You've got a deal kid! I'll be right back with your 'power-house'. Ha! One day? Yeah, right."

Szac looked at Andrew and thanked him.

"Don't bother, kid. We still have to see what he's giving me to work with."

"Yeah, but you seemed to be confident. Like you can train any Pokémon to be a power-house." Szac said enthusiastically.

"It's my only chance to do two things; one, get you out of here, and two, give me the resolve to break these bars…metaphorically you understand."

After half an hour the officer and the PokéBall was thrown into the cell. Andrew caught it in a single hand and closed his eyes.

"It's tolerable…" he said to the officer.

"Good luck. 'Cause this time tomorrow we'll be battling for the twerp's freedom." He said laughing down the hallway with confidence.

"Alright, then c'mon out."

The PokéBall's light receded and showed the Pokémon to be a Grass and Steel-type Pokémon named Ferroseed.

"Ferroseed, the Thorn Seed Pokémon. When threatened, it attacks by shooting a barrage of spikes, which gives it a chance to escape by rolling away." Andrew said under his breath.

"Can this Pokémon beat that officer?" Szac asked.

"In theory, but also this can prove to be next to useless and we'll both be here for months on end." Andrew said in contrast.

"Comforting. Wait, there's something up with this Ferroseed."

"What do you mean?" Andrew asked.

"This picture shows the spikes being green. These are blue. What does that mean?"

"The one in eight thousand ninety two chance of a Pokémon being born as a different color as the majority has been applied to this specific Ferroseed." Andrew explained. "But that better not mean that it lets that get to its head." He said looking down at Ferroseed.

"How are you gonna figure that out?" Szac asked.

"Ferroseed, attack me with your most powerful attack. The strongest thing in your arsenal." Andrew said holding out his body in front of Ferroseed.

Ferroseed attacked Andrew while spinning at high speed using Gyro Ball. The attack hit Andrew who didn't seem to be fazed at all by the attack. Ferroseed tried again with Gyro Ball still fazing Andrew.

"Maybe you're not what I need. See I'm looking for strong Pokémon. Not Pokémon who pass that off for an attack." He said with a smug look on his face. "If that's all you got then you better leave now before I call your babysitter and tell them that you're gonna miss curfew." He finished laughing.

After his monologue Andrew turned his head away from Ferroseed and ended up on the ground. He turned around and found Ferroseed still spinning in a Gyro Ball. Andrew felt the side of his face and felt the sensation of a scar forming on his face. He smiled and stood up.

"Is that all you got?" he asked not serious.

"Andrew, this is a bad idea." Szac said from the background.

"I know." He said almost hysterical. "But it's been five long years since a Pokémon had been able to make me feel pain. This Ferroseed is exactly what I need. With you I can definitely get Szac and his Pokémon out of here."

Szac started laughing sarcastically as Ferroseed happily continued to attack Andrew with Gyro Ball. Andrew began laughing in a way that made it seem like he was truly happy.

"Show me what else you got!" he said.

Ferroseed continued to show off its attack as Szac watched them and began to get drowsy. Szac fell asleep and said under his breath, "I wish for a happy tomorrow for those two nutcases."

The next morning Szac was still asleep. Andrew pulled a blanket over him and grabbed his PokéBall and walked to the edge of the cell. He called for the warden and he came accordingly.

"Good luck, delinquent. Against the CO you're gonna need it."

"Thanks I guess."

Outside in the courtyard Andrew met with the officer PokéBall in hand as the officer held his PokéBall triumphantly.

"Ready to get sent into solitary confinement?" he said overconfidently.

"You gave me a day. And I did what I said. Let's get started." Andrew answered.

The two of them threw their PokéBalls at the center of the field. The officer's Pokémon was revealed to be a Gigalith, a Rock-type Pokémon known for high defensive capabilities. Andrew's Pokémon seemed slightly different from before as the color and overall form changed. Andrew's Ferroseed, in the middle of the night, evolved into a Ferrothorn, a Pokémon who possesses the absolute highest defense of any Grass-type Pokémon. Ferrothorn looked slightly like a flying saucer, with three tentacles protruding from the top of it.

"What in the heck? How did you do that? You only had one day!"

"That was the deal was it not? I get one day to train any Pokémon that you give me and I did just that. You wouldn't know about hard work nor wouldn't being picking on a little kid who just wanted a life. I trained that thing through the night against my own body." He said revealing his new set of scars. "No more whining let's begin the battle."

The ref called it and the battle started. The officer started off with a Smack Down attack which landed successfully…just not effectively. Ferrothorn stood still and began spiraling at a velocity that seemed to not be possible for something like it given its terminal velocity.

"Gyro Ball!"

Ferrothorn charged the Gigalith and hit it with the attack knocking it back several yards into the officers. The Gigalith was called unconsciousness and Andrew was declared the winner.

"Pay up, officer!" he said reaching for the keys.

"Fine."

Andrew followed the officer to the cell where Szac was still asleep. He opened the cell and Andrew went to wake Szac up. Before he could the door slammed behind him and locked. The officer fit the key inside as he sneered at his two prisoners.

"What gives? You made a promise!" Andrew yelled at him.

"You expect me to follow through on that promise. Besides now that I have this battle video no one will ever trust you ever again!" he said while laughing maniacally.

"Nobody…nobody ever trusted me to begin with. You think that that insignificant video will change how anyone views me? You really must be crazy." He said.

The officer began to leave the cell room when he heard Szac waking up and turned around to begin gloating and lying about the battle.

"Sorry, kid, your friend failed you." He said laughing at his face when he was cut off by a ferocious attack by a Poochyena.

"Grrrr…" Szac growled as he woke up in entirety as his eyes narrowed on the officer and pointed at him and growled to the point where he seemed to be communicating with Poochyena to attack the officer. "Let the two of us leave and never come after us again." He said still growling.

Andrew watched as Szac seemed to take on a more beast presence than human. When the officer let them out he continued to growl at him causing both fear and respect from Andrew.

Outside the police station Szac began breathing hard and calming down while Andrew smiled at him.

"Thank you, Szac, but how did that happen?"

"Ever since I could remember, when people wake me up on Mondays, the day I rest my body along with my Poochyena, I turn into this feral, wild child. My parents had me checked and it turns out I had small bits and pieces of chemicals in my brain to cause this to happen."

"Well, whatever you did, I gotta say it's impressive."

"Well, what about you? What're you gonna do now?" Szac asked.

"I start looking for my Pokémon. Until then, I'm going to train Ferrothorn like it was my Bouffalant and how I would've trained Maractus. What about you, Szac?"

"I'm gonna try to be like you. A person who fights for everyone but himself. A hero in the eyes of everyone but himself. What do you think?"

"I think that you shouldn't try to model your life after me. I'm considered a delinquent everywhere; you need to be the kind of person who follows the rules and show how you go about protesting them."

"Where will you go?" Szac asked.

"Into the sunset, hoping for a new tomorrow. Maybe find my friends, but fate has a funny way for making things work."

Andrew began walking back when Szac asked, "Will I ever see you again?"

"If the winds of fate allow it, then so be it." Andrew said running with Ferrothorn into the sunset.

"Good luck, you nutcases." Szac said going off in the other direction.

…

Location; London, England

Time; 15:46

The two of them worked diligently preparing for an event of some kind. The girl was around seventeen and the boy the same age. Their Pokémon continued to work as hard as their trainers.

"Looks like everything will be ready for the tournament." The boy said.

"Just so long as we can get the reps here without fail." The girl said.

"We'll just have to wait, and be ready to test them, right guys?" the boy said.

End Chapter Four. Thank you for Szac and his condition, I hope you don't mind if I added a reason, but I figured it needed a bit more. Until next time, sayonara gozaimasu.


	5. Chapter 5

Here's chapter five of my Pokémon Fanfic. To recap; after having his Pokémon taken from him and meeting a new friend Andrew gains a new Pokémon named Ferrothorn. After leaving prison we go across the Atlantic where two people begin preparations for a tournament when they speak of testing. Who are these two? Who do they work for? What do they have to do Andrew, Alejandro, Rei, Szac, Gijo, and Star?

**DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NO CONNECTIONS TO POKEMON HOWEVER MUCH I LIKE TO****THINK I DO. PLEASE DON'T REPORT ME FOR A SUIT FILE.**

International Tournament File 005: It Takes a Certain Kind of Skill

The two of them continued to walk down the beaten path of the construction site when one of the two stopped.

"What's wrong, Ashley?" the boy answered.

"I don't know, Jon. It just seems that there's something watching us all the time." The girl named Ashley said.

The two stood in total silence when another figure came into view as Jon took a stance before a grabbing a PokéBall attached to his belt. The figure put his hands up in defense when he came into full view one could see the black sweatshirt, black jeans, and gloves ending just after the second knuckle.

"Don't shoot, I surrender." He said sarcastically.

"Iain Micheals. I should've known that something was wrong with this entire area." Jon said as he relaxed his stance.

"What do you want now?" Ashley asked.

"I'm just looking for a friendly battle between old friends, right Jon, Ashley?" Iain said.

"Alright" Jon said. "Krookodile! Show our friend the door." He called out to the Ground and Dark-type crocodilian Pokémon.

Iain never faltered even as the Krookodile got dangerously close. As the Krookodile reached out a threatening claw Iain opened his eyes signaling the arrival of his Pokémon. The Pokémon moved much faster than Krookodile and intercepted the attack. The Pokémon was a Garchomp, and due to the lack of the bite on the dorsal fin proved it was female. Iain moved his head right signaling a move for Garchomp. Garchomp nodded and used Brick Break knocking Krookodile back with super effective damage. Jon went to Krookodile as Iain looked over at Ashley. Ashley conceded to his will and sent out her Pokémon. The light receded and showed itself to be a Samurott. Samurott and Garchomp continued to battle as they continued to deliver neutral blows. After ten minutes of pointless battling the two gave up and returned their Pokémon to their respective PokéBalls.

"You were always the only one to fight me and Garchomp to a standstill. Ashley, I respect you as a trainer…Jon on the other hand."

Running to him in an instant Jon skidded with Krookodile, "What that's supposed to mean?"

"Whatever you think, pal." Iain said.

The three walked back to the construction when they saw two people almost waiting for someone when they turned to the trio.

"You must be battle reps." Jon welcomed them.

"That's right" the youngest said. "I'm Gijo, and this is Star." Gijo said introducing his partner for the battle.

"I thought that it was teams of three?" Ashley said seeing only two people.

"They said that the third rep was still to be determined." Star answered.

"Well since you're here, how 'bout some competition." Iain said. "These two can really bore me."

Jon and Ashley shot him disgruntled looks as Gijo accepted. Gijo took one position and Iain took another.

"Denchura!"

"A Galvantula, huh? Garchomp, this is a piece of cake. Just use Ground-type moves and its down."

As Garchomp charged Denchura/Galvantula underground it charged power and waited with eyes closed. Gijo closed his eyes in kind and waited for Garchomp while it began to come out of the ground. Galvantula fired its attack a split second before it came out.

"Signal Beam!" Gijo ordered.

After the beam made contact Garchomp broke out of the beam's path and charged Galvantula with a Dragon Claw attack. After the attack made contact Galvantula clung onto Garchomp and continued to do so even as Garchomp attempted to shake it off. Galvantula used a Bug Bite attack continually biting its arm while still clinging onto it. Iain smiled and looked at the battle scene with more enthusiasm than what was shown with his battle with Jon or Ashley.

"I don't think I've ever had an experience like this since my first battle. Your Galvantula fights like it's trying to protect something by causing immense pain to its opponent. Why? Why does it fight like a parent protecting its young?"

"Because I am that 'young' that it protects. He protected me when the entire world left me for dead and no matter what anyone tried he was there." Gijo explained.

"That's like me and Garchomp. When I met his as a Gible I was at a stage in my life when I needed recognition from someone. My parents always worked so there went that recognition, Gible just seemed to be there for me when the going got tough."

Gijo stared at the situation and returned Denchura/Galvantula. Iain looked surprised as Gijo turned his head. Iain grabbed his shoulder and turned him around for an explanation.

"Why'd you stop?"

"It was a stalemate. We each have the same reason for having our Pokémon; our resolves are the same and therefore the outcome you'd be a standstill. Our Pokémon both have an inherent need to protect their trainers and therefore would do nothing to see them be disappointed by their performance. That is why I stopped." Gijo explained.

The entire field was quiet when the mood was broken by Gijo getting pounced by another Pokémon. The Pokémon turned out to be a Liepard, a medium size feline Pokémon known for its speed and attack strength, but for Gijo it meant torture.

"Gijo-kun, nya!" someone yelled as he cringed. "Gijo-kun, I can't believe you boarded the plane without me, nya." The young girl yelled.

"Yeah, there's a reason for that!" Gijo yelled back.

The young girl finally caught up to him when she tackled hugged him after Liepard jumped off.

"I can never stay mad at you can I, nya? Ah, you're so kawaii, nya!" she said rubbing her head against his.

"Everyone, meet the leech in human form, Brittany Rose Munk. Hometown; Okinawa, Japan, occupation; student and at current moment the third for the Japanese team."

The people in attendance including Star practically freaked when they saw Brittany practically choke Gijo to death while hugging him. After she let go she eyed Star, whom, ironically, had not met before; probably because of Gijo.

"Hoe, nya?" she said quietly after which she jumped on her too. "Kawaii, nya!" she yelled as she began to hug onto Star as well.

"She does this often?" Jon asked.

"More than most of us would like to admit. She's been banned from nearly three local parks because she almost hugged the Pokémon into comas. Whenever she finds something she finds cute she jump on it, hug it, and call it "Kawaii;" other than that she can really pack a wallop with Liepard and that Faint Attack that they're known to use."

"Just for future reference does she do this to older guys?" Iain asked.

"Nah, only things she deems cute and that normally spans young to teenage girls and boys aged from ten to thirteen."

The two sighed out of relief as Star finally managed to break out of the death grip. Brittany then looked around for her next victim. Ashley quickly ducked behind Jon and pretended like she wasn't there. Unfortunately, Brittany spotted her and walked over to her. Ashley cringed as Brittany walked away as soon as she had gotten to her.

"So why not her?" Gijo asked.

"Obaa-san, nya!" She yelled at Ashley.

"What'd she say?" Ashley asked looking at Gijo.

"One of two things; she could have called you 'Aunt', but she enunciated the 'a' making you a grandma." He said quickly ducking.

Ashley sent out Samurott which tried to intimidate Brittany who just jumped on it and looked at its eyes warding it off.

"Yeah, she's got that effect on people, and in this case Pokémon." Gijo said. "Well, you've met the Japanese team so what're you guy the welcoming committee."

"No we're the team representing Great Britain. We've just gotta wait for the team from Central Europe to show up and we'll have almost every team." Iain explained.

"Wait, 'almost?'" Gijo asked.

"Yeah, the United States has been slowed by this delinquent in New Hampshire causing all these problems." Jon explained.

"All that just for one delinquent, nya?" Brittany asked.

"Apparently, he's attacked officers, had his Pokémon released, trained a new one, gotten out of jail for a second time, and finally has harbored more than one Pokémon at the same time." Ashley finished.

Gijo gulped as did Star, both of them saw that Gijo owns two Pokémon and hopefully they would understand. Granted he had to leave Golem at home just in case.

"How old is this kid, nya?" Brittany asked.

"They said about sixteen." Iain said. "They sent a lot of officers around the world pictures of him for his heinous crimes." He finished as he showed them a picture of a person they didn't recognize…but the viewer would see as Andrew (wink-wink).

"He doesn't look so bad, nya." Brittany remarked.

"Yeah, well you can't judge a book by its cover." Iain said ripping the picture.

As they walked back to the facility they saw the picture reform itself with a blue outline on it. The picture floated to a boy older than the rest in attendance with two girls both younger than him on both sides, one was gripping onto his arm and the other had a mischievous look on her face.

"Hola! My name is Alejandro Ramirez. This is Rei Zwing and Daisy Villa, we are the representatives for the Central European team." The boy said.

"Welcome I guess; how did you do that?" He said pointing at the picture.

"Darmanitan used his Psychic attack, who's the kid?" he said looking down at the picture.

"Looks available" Rei said. Alejandro rolled his eyes.

"He looks like someone I saw on TV in Mexico. Yeah, a delinquent trainer who's been causing this whole ruckus in the states." Daisy said.

"Wait you're from Mexico and you're representing a European team?" Iain asked.

"Yeah, I've traveled for a few years now and made it to Europe this past year and started earning points to join the team. Monferno, has been with me through thick and thin; when we met Alejandro and Rei we knew they were the special invites by the way they seemed completely spaced out." She said giggling.

"You dug a pit for us to fall in, of course we got lost. Didn't help that Rei screamed in my ear when she saw the dirt." Alejandro said looking at the both of them.

"Hey, dirt was not something I was used to, okay? And I don't like my dress getting all dirty." Rei said.

"And I told you when we met that I'm a chronic prankster." Daisy said.

"Well, if this invigorating time is done I'd like to get inside before the storm comes in." Ashley said.

"Good idea, I just did my hair too." Rei said touching up her hair.

Gijo and Alejandro both smacked their faces with the palm of the hand as they followed after everyone…well almost everyone. Brittany jumped onto Gijo and forced him to carry her.

"Dame!" he yelled in Japanese (pronounced da-me, "a" pronounced long and "e" pronounced with an accent mark like in "café.")

Inside everyone reached the lobby of the hotel for the European and Japanese teams. Rei saw Gijo walking in with Brittany on his back and jumped on Alejandro the same way, the only difference, Alejandro didn't let her hang onto him.

"So we just have to wait for the American team to get here before this tournament can start?" Rei asked standing up and getting the dust off her dress as the rain started.

"That's the idea." Ashley said combing her hair.

Gijo turned the TV on for the news as they had just begun a special report.

"To all the nations in North America and Europe! If you see this boy do not attempt to battle him just call the local police! He is a dangerous felon who has been just escaped from prison and on his way to the International Tournament for reasons unknown! If he hides his face you will recognize him by the alternately colored Ferrothorn he uses in his battles! Again; if you find this boy don't battle him and just call the authorities! This ends tonight's special report." The anchorman said straightening his tie.

Gijo turned off the TV and look out the window to see if anyone was coming. Alejandro, Jon, and Iain did the same. Rei, Daisy, Ashley, and Star all took positions in the center of the room. Gijo lowered his PokéBall and turned to the others.

"If he does show up, I'm gonna battle him." He declared.

"Are you nuts, didn't they say to leave this to the authorities?" Ashley asked.

"Yes, but what good are they gonna do? They already lost this guy once and twice what good are they gonna do a third time, trust me on this third time's not always the charm." He said as a figure approached the building in the rain. No Pokémon was visible as they continued to watch it move by. The figure reached the front door and knocked on it wanting to come in.

"What do we do?" Star asked. "What if it's him?" she said motioning to the picture.

"Then we stop acting scared." Gijo said walking to the door.

As Gijo walked towards the door the figure pulled out a PokéBall and did nothing with it. Gijo opened the front door as the figured collapsed in a heap right then. Gijo went to check, he was living, but barely.

"Get an ambulance-" he said but was cut off by the figure's hand.

"No ambulance." He said as he stood up. "Just help me save this Pokémon." He said giving him the PokéBall.

Gijo accepted and pulled out a small instrument for determining the Pokémon inside. It was not a Ferrothorn, but a Zorua, and a weak one at that. Gijo sent it out and saw it had been badly poisoned but beyond what a Pokémon could do.

"Antidote" he said motioning for Star.

Star gave him the antidote and any other medicine he needed. The figure sat down coughing as though he had been attacked as well. His head stayed concealed under his hood when Gijo gave the Zorua to him and the figure returned it.

"Thank you, kind sir. Have you people watched the news recently?" he asked.

"Yeah, we put up a barricade because of it just before you showed up." Gijo said in affirmation.

"I see, then I'll just leave." He said getting up but was blocked by Rei and Daisy.

"You're in pain and need your rest." Rei said pushing him back down into the chair.

The figure revealed a PokéBall from his cloak and sent out the Pokémon inside. Ferrothorn came out of the ball as the shine around it indicated it was of alternate coloration. The trainers in the room gasped as they just now realized they were in the presence of the same felon on the TV; Andrew.

"You cannot keep me here?" he said as the rain pelted through the night.

Chapter Five complete. I've used almost all of the OCs submitted, yay! Thank you for the characters of Iain, Brittany, and Daisy. As for the final OC submitted Chase, he will be used in a later chapter. Domo Arigatoo Gozaimasu.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter six of my Pokémon Fanfic. To recap: The teams from England, Central Europe, and Japan have gathered in London for the international tournament, but have their plans cut short when a APB out for Andrew brings the felon to the same hotel that the teams in question are staying at injured along with another Pokémon, Zorua, who has been injured in the same manner.

**DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NO CONNECTIONS TO POKEMON HOWEVER MUCH I LIKE TO THINK I DO. PLEASE DON'T REPORT ME FOR A SUIT FILE**

International Tournament File 006: I Won't Stop

The figure sent out the Pokémon in the ball and revealed it to be an alternately colored Ferrothorn alerting the guests that they were in the company of the same felon on the news; Andrew.

"Denchura, Charge Beam!" Gijo called out of silence.

The spider Pokémon attacked the Ferrothorn with a concentrated beam of lightning that was easily blocked by Ferrothorn. Andrew took of his cloak to reveal a pair of blue jeans, red shirt with a pitch black jacket, and red and white sneakers. Andrew kept panting and sat back down out of weakness.

"Ferrothorn, Power Whip!" Andrew called out to his Pokémon.

Ferrothorn charged Galvantula with a speed which surprised the guests as the spider was whacked back into the wall. Gijo shot Andrew a crossed look as he went over to Galvantula.

"Ninetales, Flamethrower!" Rei called out to her kitsune Pokémon while Alejandro and Daisy did the same with their fire-types.

"Protect…" Andrew said weakly.

An invisible barrier appeared in front of Ferrothorn which protected him from any damage. Andrew stood up and walked past the other guests to the sleeping Zorua who was still recovery. Andrew picked the small fox Pokémon in his arms and carried back to the lounge chair. His eyes began to lose more and more emotion as he sat back down and slowly shut his eyes.

"Zorua, Night Daze…" he said again weakly.

Zorua jumped up and caused a shockwave defeating the used Pokémon by the Central European team as well as the other Pokémon that had just sent out, Krookodile, Samurott, and Garchomp. Zorua emerged from the wreckage but as slightly taller and on its hind legs.

"Looks like your charade is over, Andrew. That Zorua is its evolved form, Zoroark, isn't it?" Gijo called out as he pointed to a near unconscious Andrew.

"No getting past you elite trainers, but that doesn't negate that you attacked and lost to a single trainer." Andrew said tauntingly.

Zoroark and Ferrothorn took their trainer's side and returned themselves to their PokéBalls when Andrew collapsed again and the guests weren't sure if that was good thing or a bad thing.

"Shouldn't we help him? I mean he looks so weak." Ashley said concerned about his well-being.

"There's an extra room on the third floor" Iain started. "We can put him up there until he's feeling better at which point we call the police."

"N-no p-police" Andrew said barely conscious. "Just h-help m-me, and th-then I'll be o-out of here."

"You're still a wanted felon" Gijo said. "We can't ignore that fact."

"But I'm still a human being, despite what others say." Andrew said.

"Who are the others?" Brittany asked.

"The news, police, my school, my government as a whole. They're postponing this tournament because I'm at large; they think I'm as dangerous as an atomic bomb. They make me seem like I don't have a reason for doing what I do." Andrew said before fainting again.

"Take him up to the extra room" Iain said. "Hey, Gijo, what happened to him? I mean, why is he so weak just like that Zorua or Zoroark?"

"They were attacked by Poison Pokémon and not in a nice way. I'll treat his wounds, but someone's gonna have to watch him and make sure he doesn't try anything funny. So who's up for it?" Gijo asked.

"I'll take the first watch!" Daisy said raising her hand with a happy smile on her face. "What that guy needs is a smile to watch him."

"Alright fine, we'll decide what to do with him later, until then act as though he is a felon and must be put under strict surveillance." Iain said.

As they dispersed Andrew's Zoroark went up to Ashley, Jon and Iain with a note. Jon took the note and read it with a strange request. The note read, "When you get the chance, let me talk with you three about the international tournament. ~Andrew"

The three looked at each other and followed Daisy to the extra room as Alejandro and Rei put him in bed and Gijo began applying a cream to his back. Daisy watched Gijo as he taught her to do the same should he had needed it. Daisy began to get the hang of it and was left alone with an unconscious felon who had been poisoned.

The next morning Daisy woke up still sitting down in the chair and leaning up against the bed. She looked at the bed and found it to be flat meaning it was empty. She began to panic and searched the hotel without finding him until she walked into the kitchen after smelling an egg being scrambled in a skillet. Daisy following her nose and walked into the kitchen to find Andrew frying three eggs in the skillet.

"Um, what are you doing?" Daisy asked.

"Making me and my Pokémon breakfast. Hey, even felons have to eat." He said feeling much better.

"How are you anyway?"

"A heck of a lot better than I was before, still a little weak in my left leg, but no big deal." He said placing an egg in front of each of his Pokémon and himself.

The three ate their eggs and stood up to go back to their room.

"Hold up!" Daisy called out.

"Can I help you?" Andrew said looking back with Ferrothorn and Zoroark doing the same.

"You can't be leaving without permission from your guard." Daisy said fairly confidently.

"I broke out of jail twice; I have little to no respect for anyone calling them self my guard. Come one guys, time for an early morning nap." He said yawning. "Oh and if I don't see that little dude before you do tell him thanks for the ointment last night, and that goes out to you as well, thanks for helping with those wounds last night."

Daisy waved goodbye awestruck realizing that he was like a werewolf; nice in the morning but a monster at night. Daisy woke everyone up and waited for Gijo by his door. Gijo came out shortly she woke him up when she met him and told him what Andrew told her.

"Maybe that delinquent isn't as evil as we thought." Gijo contemplated.

"WHO'RE YOU CALLING A DELINQUENT?" Andrew said skidding down in the hall and stopping in front of Gijo who didn't even flinch.

"Nobody, do you want breakfast?" he asked.

"He already had some." Daisy said.

"And I made everyone else's." Andrew added.

The two of them looked at him when the other guests gasped out of shock and awe. Gijo and Daisy ran down the stairs and saw the table had already been set with breakfast foods in buffet style.

"I wasn't sure what you guys liked so I just everything that I know how to for breakfast." Andrew said shrugging. "And after that I just had a scrambled egg." He finished while yawning and heading back up stairs. "You two can join them and their Pokémon if they're okay with it." He said to his Pokémon.

The other trainers affirmed and Zoroark and Ferrothorn joined the other Pokémon in their breakfast. Andrew smiled and chuckled before heading back upstairs; as he did the trainers and their Pokémon began feasting on the breakfast happily. Gijo looked back up at Andrew and thought for several seconds before he joined in on the buffet.

"I guess he's not such a bad guy after all." Star said eating an omelet as the others agreed.

"Well, yeah. He can cook, but that doesn't negate the fact that he's a wanted felon." Rei said pouring syrup on a pile of pancakes.

"Jon, Ashley after breakfast we're going up to talk to him, got it?" Iain said finishing an English muffin.

"Sounds good." Ashley agreed.

After the three finished they walked to Andrew's room and found him looking at a third PokéBall. The three gasped as Andrew pulled them in and locked the door.

"You really have a need to be in jail, don't you?" Iain whispered loudly.

"It's not what it seems." Andrew reassured them. "It's an empty PokéBall that I've been modifying to have the same catch rate as an Ultra Ball."

"Why do you have to do that?" Jon asked.

"It's part of why I wanted to talk to you." Andrew started.

"What do you want?" Iain asked.

"Entry into this tournament." He said flatly.

"What?" Jon said. "Two things; what are you talking about, and what does that have to do with the PokéBall?"

"Three years ago I made a promise to my original Pokémon, Bouffalant. If we should ever get separated for whatever means we meet at the international tournament whether it is as friends or rivals." Andrew explained. "And the only way I can live up to that promise is by joining the tournament."

"You're nuts!" Ashley said very bluntly.

"I've been tested by numerous shrinks and I should be." Andrew said. "But I still have sane to know that my cause will never be accepted by those in authority; that's why I came here."

"Sorry dude, once you're better we're calling the police." Jon said as the three walked away.

Andrew looked back down at the PokéBall when Daisy knocked on the door.

"Come in." Andrew said.

"I heard their little discussion with you. Is Bouffalant just a Pokémon you want to capture or is he an old friend?" Daisy asked.

"He used to be my Pokémon. We met maybe five and a half years ago. I was walking in the alleyway like I always did and I ran into these thugs who figured they could ransom me. I ran out of the alleyway and saw this massive Bouffalant staring at me. I thought it was their Pokémon but instead it motioned for me to move. When I did the thugs had made it out of the alleyway and right into the Head Charge of an angry Bouffalant. He lowered his head and a PokéBall fell out of his hair and he motioned for me to take it. After I caught him I came home to find my parents not at home leaving me with a note saying they were going on some adventure to find who they really are. I hadn't heard from them until about a week ago. They sent a postcard from their funeral."

"They died?" Daisy asked.

"Yeah, they caught some fever in the Congo and just gave in. They sent me a copy of the will explaining that I don't have legal ownership of the apartment anymore so I left for London to get to the international tournament."

"That's really sad. My parents just let me go when I was ten. I have a good number of siblings so it was decided that once we got Pokémon we left. Chimchar was given to me by an old doctor who needed someone to take care of it while he got his affairs in order. I haven't heard from him since and Monferno are already great friends. I just don't know what to say to make you feel better about Bouffalant." Daisy explained.

"There's nothing anyone can do until I meet him again…" he said looking up at the ceiling.

There was an awkward silence until someone from downstairs let out a high pitched scream. Andrew's eyes narrowed as he and Daisy ran down the stairs to find out the situation. Andrew slid down the banister and found a hold-up in the doorway. Seviper; and a lot of 'em. Andrew growled lightly and walked calmly down the stairs.

"What's with the lame welcoming party?" Andrew asked one of the others.

"You mean these aren't friends of yours?" Star asked about ready to panic.

"Why do you think Zoroark and I were injured?" he said pointing to his back and left leg.

"So they followed you to finish the job…" Gijo said preparing his PokéBall.

The others prepared their PokéBalls as well when Andrew motioned for them not to.

"I can easily take them." He said confidently.

"You're crazy!" Rei called out.

"This won't just end with slight poisoning, nya!" Brittany said. "Andrew-san just let us take of this."

"Seviper, the Fang-Snake Pokémon, for many generations, it has feuded with Zangoose. It whets its bladed tail on rocks for battle." Andrew said under his breath.

One of the Seviper charged Andrew and tried to slash him when Daisy got in front of them. Andrew stared at her almost angry as she and Monferno held the Seviper in place.

"What do you think you're doing, Daisy?" Andrew asked with his hands still in his pockets.

"Protecting you" she said looking back at him. "All your life you have had to do things by yourself, but not anymore. You've got friends now." She said smiling back at him. "Monferno, Flame Wheel!"

Monferno and Daisy jumped back and Monferno spun its body accelerating to the point of ignition and charged the Seviper. Monferno successfully hit and KO'd the Pokémon and high fived its trainer.

"Stay out of my way." Andrew said cringing.

"Huh?" Daisy asked turning to face him.

"The reason I've done things myself is because I protect others from the same pain that I feel both physically and emotionally. Zoroark! Night Daze!" Andrew commanded without looking away.

The other trainers looked for Zoroark but couldn't find him, but found that one of the Seviper began fighting its own with moves it shouldn't know. Andrew's continued to stare down at the floor as the Seviper continued to attack the others.

"Zoroark c'mon back." He said as the Seviper disillusioned itself and returned to its trainer.

Almost all of the Seviper had been defeated when one looked at Daisy with narrowed eyes. The Seviper charged Daisy while she was still in shock and came dangerously close to her. When the Poison Tail made contact Andrew had taken it directly to the shoulder.

"Why?" Daisy asked as the other trainers all saw that Andrew never flinched.

The Seviper removed its tail as Andrew fell to his knees. "MAN! THAT HURT!" he yelled.

Gijo slapped his own face his palm while the other trainers halfway fainted.

"You didn't answer her question." Alejandro said still standing firm.

"No one should have to go through what I have to live every day of my life." Andrew said holding his shoulder. "Especially people who have tried to make me feel better."

The Seviper attacked Zoroark but was blocked by Galvantula. Andrew looked at Gijo who nodded at him. Andrew forced himself up and called for Ferrothorn who attacked the Seviper. Alejandro sent out Darmanitan and attacked another five Seviper. Star sent out Lucario but still seemed unable to use it. Iain, Ashley, Jon, and Brittany sent out there Pokémon and engaged the Seviper who almost seemed scared. Andrew walked up to the leader and punched it with his own fist.

"For once in my life" he started while breathing hard. "I've found people who don't judge me based on my past but who they've seen me as. I've finally found friends and I'm not gonna let you spoil that. Everyone, return your Pokémon. Ferrothorn, Explosion!"

Ferrothorn charged up power as the others returned their Pokémon to their respective PokéBalls. Ferrothorn released the power causing an explosion that would put most bombs to shame. When the smoke cleared Andrew had already returned Ferrothorn and stood alone in the smoke with most of the Seviper fleeing pulling their comrades.

"Please, Jon, Iain, and Ashley reconsider my request; it's my only chance to find him. I can't lose anymore friends." Andrew said with tears forming on his face.

"We'll talk to the administration later today." Iain said as the three left for their destination.

"Thank-you." Andrew said with a real smile on his face.

Gijo put his hand on Andrew's uninjured shoulder while Alejandro put it on his other causing a small cringe.

"Thank-you for saving Daisy." Alejandro walking away.

"And for giving us a reason to trust you." Gijo finished.

"_Bouffalant, I think that this is the closest to people in a long time. May the good winds be at your side. Good-bye"_

Location; Ontario, Canada

The battled had just ended with a tall figure wearing glasses shifting them and just muttering the words, "weakling." He walked along the United States border and saw a wanted poster for Andrew.

"Target acquired, Luxray, let's go." He called out to his Pokémon.

Chapter 6 complete. Andrew may be finally accepted into society by a few but who is this mysterious person who sees him as a target, a friend, an enemy, or a frienemy, and whatever happened to Szac? All these questions answered in the chapter. Enjoy, and keep reading to see what happens next and what will happen to the tournament.


	7. Chapter 7

Here's chapter seven of my Pokémon Fanfic. Hopefully, everyone has found it under MISC. and under MISC. GAMES. To recap: Andrew has been accepted by the community of the English, Japanese, and the Central European teams for the international teams while they see if they can grant him entry into the tournament while more questions arise; at the end of the last chapter a mysterious trainer referred him as a target, and whatever happened to the trainer named Szac Selthez?

**DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NO CONNECTIONS TO POKEMON HOWEVER MUCH I LIKE TO THINK I DO. PLEASE DON'T REPORT ME FOR A SUIT FILE.**

International Tournament File 007: It's All About the Evolution

Location: New Hampshire, USA

He stared with cold eyes towards the apartment with an eviction notice on the door. He continued to the door with fire in his eyes when a police officer grabbed his arm and looked down at his PokéBall.

"What business do you have here?" the officer asked in a gruff tone.

"Where is the former resident of this apartment?" he asked without looking at the officer.

"He was evicted three weeks ago." The officer started to feel suspicious. "Why, what do business do you have with the scum?"

"I want to ask to join my bridge game." He said sarcastically. "This guy intrigues me enough to make me want to battle him." He said this time seriously coming into full view.

The boy seemed to be the same age as Andrew with dark skin, a tan long-sleeved shirt with a small shield with a Luxray's face on it, black hair, and deep brown eyes, with a pair of light gray cargo pants. He looked at the officer confidently as the officer pulled a PokéBall from his coat.

"Magmar! Help me out!" the officer called out.

"Luxray, make them collapse! Charge Beam!" the boy called out to the open field.

The Magmar attacked into the nothingness of the field to be cut off by a concentrated beam of lightning. The Magmar fell back into the field and the officer returned it running away.

"Weakling…" he said looking at the apartment. "Well, since I'm here."

The boy walked into the apartment and found nothing there except for a small kitchen with a large bowl of food on the cross-section of the kitchen and the den. He found an easy-chair with a cup holder on one of the sides. The boy smiled to see the person who his opponent was.

"Okay, judging by the food crumbs left, the Pokémon he kept was a normal type and that Pokémon had a very wide feature on its body due to the marks on the walls problem horns based on that fairly obvious impression on the wall." He said as he saw a hole in the wall matching a Boufflant's horns. "This insinuates that the Pokémon in question was probably bovine and with those horn lengths means his Pokémon was a Bouffalant. Well, that was easy."

The boy began looking around with his Luxray finding only more evidence of another Pokémon other than Bouffalant. He sat down in the easy chair and began contemplating what the second Pokémon was.

"Claw marks on the ceiling, three in the group making nine in all. No excess amounts of food, meaning the Pokémon didn't have an excessive need to eat, but that in itself means the Pokémon doesn't take in food but some other source of nutrients. Hmm, homemade sunroofs meaning the nutrients were sunlight. The Pokémon was grass and the only Pokémon capable of having all these criteria is Ferrothorn. So I'm looking for a person who looks like this poster and has a Ferrothorn." He said confidently.

He got up to leave when he ran into a small boy on the way out. The boy looked more like a Pokémon than his own.

"_This kid looks…hoo, and smells like his own Pokémon, what does he want?" _the other male thought.

"What are you doing here in my friend's home?" the boy asked.

"Real-estate?" he said sarcastically.

The younger boy put on a less-enthusiastic look. "How about a real answer?"

"I'm looking for your evicted friend so I can battle him." The boy said.

"You'll lose for sure. He trained up his Ferrothorn from a Ferroseed in one day." The younger boy said confidently.

"Good thing to know, just like me and Luxray." He said looking down at his Pokémon.

The boy gritted his teeth and attacked him with the Poochyena next to him. The boy anticipated the attack with Luxray. The boy took off his glasses and looked at the younger boy with a fire in his eyes of determination.

"Luxray, Charge Beam!" he commanded.

Using the same move that he did on the Magmar, Luxray shot the electrical attack at the small Poochyena. Poochyena expertly dodged the attack and shot a Shadow Ball attack at Luxray that hit him squarely on the back left leg. Luxray and his trainer smiled confidently as the boy applauded.

"Only one other person has been able to attack and cause considerable damage to Luxray, my name is Chase, and yours?" he said ending his applause.

"Szac, a person saved by Andrew, and I still owe him. I won't let anyone battle him until he's ready for it." Szac said lifting his head up to see Chase's.

Chase looked at the young boy and smiled as well as looking at Poochyena.

"You ever think about evolving that Poochyena?" he said placing his hands in his pockets.

"What? What does of that have to do with anything?" Szac asked looking at Chase's face.

"If you want to protect your friend you'll need more power, and a Poochyena isn't gonna cut it." he said kneeling down to Poochyena.

Szac thought about what he said and remembered the training that Andrew went through to evolve his Ferroseed into what it was now. He looked down at his Poochyena and Chase smiling up at him.

"Will you help me with that?" Szac asked smiling.

"Why not? It's gonna take me a while to find your friend anyway." Chase said shrugging his shoulders.

"Help me evolve Poochyena and I'll tell you where Andrew went." Szac said petting Poochyena.

"Good deal, so let's start, Szac was it?" Chase said with a warm smile.

"Let's start, Chase." Szac said shaking his hand.

Throughout the rest of the night Szac and Chase began battling like crazy to help Szac evolve Poochyena. For several hours the two new friends woke up neighbors who wanted to stop them but couldn't bring themselves to do it because of the beautiful scene that showed what Pokémon Battles should be like.

The next morning Szac woke up to find a Pokémon licking his face to wake him up. Szac woke up with Chase sitting and looking at the sun with his Pokémon still licking him to show him something…its evolution. Szac looked with amazement at the Pokémon that had been a Poochyena only hours ago, but now a Mightyena. Chase jumped down from the fence he was sitting on when he jumped in front of Szac.

"Alright, pay up. Where did Andrew go?" He asked Szac.

"Only if you let me come with you." Szac said which Chase gladly accepted. "London, England. He's there to try to sneak into the International Tournament." He said almost proud.

Chase stretched his back and motioned for Szac to follow him. Szac jumped up and followed him until they reached an airport.

"What are we gonna pay with? Jellybeans?" Szac asked sarcastically.

Chase shot him a strange look and walked into the airport after returning Luxray and motioned for Szac to do the same. After they reached the desk Chase pulled out a card that the flight attendant accepted and printed out two tickets for first class. Szac dropped his jaw after they walked past customs into the first class section of the plane. Szac kept an incredulous look on his face even as they sat and took off.

"How did you do that?"

"When you live a life as they kid of the founder for the largest company in the country of Canada there are a few perks. I lived a life where everything was handed to me; everything except for love from my parents who continued to work and I found that I was more alone than one could imagine. When I found Shinx I found who I was and that was never going to be taken away from me."

"You sound exactly like Andrew" Szac said. Chase turned to him as Szac continued his remark, "Both of you want only to know who you really are, but have found it different; you found it as acceptance for abilities as a trainer, while Andrew finds it as breaking the rules of being a trainer even to the point of being thrown in jail."

"So far I don't see it, I use my brain. Sometimes I can't figure out those delinquents, but Andrew just seems to be different from the rest."

"He definitely is. He evolved his Ferroseed in one day to get me out of the same jail house he was in before."

"He seems like a very nice person. I can't wait to battle him; do you know anything about his past?" Chase asked getting more and more interested.

"He was disowned by his parents, thrown in jail twice, had his original Pokémon released, and had another one trained in one day, he's an inspiration to all trainers who seem to need give up."

"I can't wait to meet him." Chase said as the two fell asleep for the rest of the plane ride.

The plane arrived in London a couple hours after they had dozed off. At the airport Chase asked about the tournament location for a better idea where they had to go. The two reached a construction site with several Pokémon footprints in the ground broken for the tournament hall, which was near days from being completed. Chase and Szac walked through several hotels for the other teams which proved to be useless.

"You sure he was planning to come to get into this tournament?" Chase asked.

"Definitely, when I called his apartment gave me a message that said not to bother to call this number cause he was in London to try to get into the International Tournament." Szac said. "Look we have one more hotel to check, nothing ventured nothing gained, right?"

"Well, what have we got to lose?" Chase said shrugging.

Chase knocked on the door and was met by a Zoroark running out of the hotel with someone yelling out to him, "Cry Freedom!" Szac slapped his head with his palm knowing who it was.

Chase and Szac entered the hotel to find three teams staring at them. Three people from one of the teams walked up and greeted them.

"You must be part of the American Team, about time." Iain said.

"What?" Szac asked. "We just want to see Andrew."

The other teams slapped their faces with their palms as Gijo called Andrew down. Andrew came down and saw Szac and ran up to him.

"Hey, shrimp." He said then noticing the other. "Who's your friend?"

"Chase; don't bother asking for a last name, I'd rather forget it." Chase said seriously.

"Yeah, well what do you want and why is Szac here?" Andrew asked as the two were the exact same height.

"You wanna sell that apartment?" he asked sarcastically. "I want to battle with you and Szac was my information."

"Why me? There're plenty of trainers in the world, why me?" Andrew asked.

"Because according to Szac we're the same." Chase said smiling.

"I doubt that, but there aren't many people who could argue with that face. But with one condition, I win and you join the American team along with Szac." Andrew declared. "Just one question; why do you think you can beat me?"

"Three words: Magister Mundi Sum." Chase said.

"I see; then let's begin Master of the Universe." Andrew declared.

End chapter seven; thank you for Chase, I think I can really use him as an opposite to Andrew; also, I hope you don't mind the tweaking. Next time: the battle between two extremes begins what is the outcome, knowledge or gut feeling.


	8. Chapter 8

Here comes chapter eight of my Songfic. To recap; Szac, a trainer who once spent a small amount of time with Andrew has met up with a mysterious trainer named Chase whose past is something that remains a mystery to all of us among other things. After helping Szac and allowing him to follow him to London Chase finally met up with the escaped felon and requested a battle with the wager that if Chase loses he joins the American team for the International Tournament along with the already approved Andrew and most-likely candidate Szac.

**DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NO CONNECTIONS TO POKEMON HOWEVER MUCH I LIKE TO THINK I DO. PLEASE DON'T REPORT ME FOR A SUIT FILE.**

International Tournament File 008: I Must Define

"Just one question; why do you think you can beat me?" Andrew asked.

"Three words: Magister Mundi Sum." Chase said.

"I see; then let's begin Master of the Universe." Andrew declared.

"With pleasure…" Chase said as he threw his PokéBall. "Make them collapse!"

Luxray stepped out of the PokéBall light and let out a mighty roar as Andrew did the same with his Ferrothorn. Ferrothorn floated in silence as the two opponents sized each other off. Chase made the first move with a Fire Fang. Luxray charged Ferrothorn and opened its mouth raising the heat of its jaw and pounced down to clamp onto it. Andrew mumbled slightly and Ferrothorn deflected the attack with a Power Whip. Luxray flew back and skidded across the lobby floor back to its trainer's side.

"Impressive" Chase commended. "But that isn't gonna be enough to stop me and Luxray. As a great emperor once said, 'Veni, vidi, vici.'"

"You haven't even gotten serious yet, you haven't seen anything, and finally you haven't conquered me yet. Ferrothorn, Iron Head!" Andrew declared.

Ferrothorn charged Luxray with an increasing speed that hit Luxray but not enough to be considered considerable.

Chase chuckled, "Not bad, but maybe next time you could try something that does this little thing called damage."

Andrew kept his head down and mumbled again which Ferrothorn took nodding and then forcing its body into a Gyro Ball. As the attack gained more speed Luxray took more and more damage. Chase looked around the hotel and saw the chandeliers hanging around and nodded.

"Discharge!" Chase called out to Luxray.

Luxray released a frenzy of lightning bolts that hit Ferrothorn without doing much damage but as the lightning hit the chandeliers it redirected onto Ferrothorn causing recoil of lightning on Ferrothorn causing temporary paralysis. Andrew looked at both his Pokémon as well as Chase's and widened his eyes.

"Leech Seed!" he called out.

Ferrothorn let out a spread of seeds which attached onto Luxray sapping up amounts of energy and adding them to Ferrothorn. Chase shifted his eyes to the surroundings and looked at the other trainers as they seemed to be trying to figure him out. Chase gritted his teeth and put on another smile and looked over at Luxray.

"Charge!"

Through having its health sapped Luxray began charging electric power and seemed to be fighting off the Leech Seed.

"Now, Discharge!" Chsae called out.

Letting out the frenzy of lightning Luxray began charging its body with excess amounts of electrical knocking off the Leech Seed vines. Andrew seemed to be the least surprised as he looked at the other trainers.

"Why did you come here?" he asked.

"What?" Chase asked.

"Why are you here exactly?" he asked again.

"To have a battle against someone who is at least the beginning of a challenge. Also, I heard from Szac who you are inside and I wanted to test that."

"Szac never told you the whole story; in fact no one has even heard the story." Andrew said.

"What's there to know? You've been to jail twice on illegal grounds of Pokémon battling and harboring two Pokémon at once, like that Zoroark." Chase said pointing back at the direction that Zoroark had ran in.

"I saved him from a pack of Seviper, and released him when I knew they wouldn't bother him anymore. But the reason behind my first jailing has more to do with just illegal battling."

"I don't follow." Chase said.

"Not like you would; have you ever been in trouble to the point of no one ever thinking of you the same again?" Andrew asked.

"Can't say that that's ever happened to me." Chase said.

"When I was eleven my parents left me for dead after I captured my Pokémon. I don't know how you have to live, but for an eleven year old kid living by himself you have only one thing to go off of, your instinct. As my life went on, I was about thirteen, and my Pokémon Bouffalant and I had made a pretty big reputation for ourselves in sanctioned battles, we were on our way to this tournament until we started to listen to our gut feeling."

"This is why you always have to think things through. When I got Shinx I had no parents who even bothered to acknowledge my existence. It took me days to think it through, but when I had come to a decision I decided I wasn't going to live in the shadow of my parents. Would you have come to that decision with instincts?"

"I didn't need instincts to know I couldn't live in their shadow." Andrew said putting his head down.

"Because they were creeps who didn't know what they had until they left it?" Chase asked.

"No" Andrew said lifting his head. "Because I knew who they truly were when I was four, operatives of a mysterious organization working with one of the greatest criminal masterminds of our time."

The other trainers began to mumble about who in the heck he was talking about while Chase, Star, Daisy, and Szac all began to quicken their breath as Andrew began to say the name.

"Team Rocket…" he said pulling a picture of them from his wallet. "My parents were two high ranking officials in the Team Rocket organization and therefore I could never live in that kind of shadow no matter what anyone said. When the new law was passed my parents left to rejoin their comrades and to scheme a way into taking over the world to repeal the new law, but in doing so they molded me into this feared trainer that no one would ever trust again. After we listened to our gut feeling, Bouffalant and I, we began battling on the streets and got a name for ourselves their too, but the authorities thought that because I was willing to voice my opinions to the public, I was their greatest threat yet, so they put me in prison."

"I thought there was no rule about battling on the streets." Szac said.

"Not recreational battling like in parks or alleyways, but battling non-officially while jeopardizing the public good is." Chase explained. "Because you listened to your gut, you got sent to prison, good for you."

"No, because I listened to my gut, I learned that the police are abusive people taking advantage of those they place in jail, and because I listened to my gut, I learned that to make it in this world you have to be willing to take a fall every once in a while."

"That explains everything" Ashley exclaimed. "The only reason he's done this is to show the abusive nature of the police enforcement of the laws placed on Pokémon trainers."

"Let's continue!" Chase said. "Luxray, Charge Beam!"

Luxray fired the electrical charge and fired it at Ferrothorn. Andrew whistled slightly and Ferrothorn after that used a Protect neutralizing any effect of the Charge Beam.

"Fire Fang!" Chase ordered.

This time making contact, Luxray stuck onto the main body of Ferrothorn and latching onto it causing it to take increasing damage. Andrew ordered it to shake it off and Ferrothorn did so after spinning into a Gyro Ball. Andrew and Chase looked at each other and both began having second thoughts about this person they were battling.

"_He battles like a person who believes only in his instincts, hoping something will work and having complete faith that it does." _Chase thought.

"_This dude battles like a regular Albert Einstein, he analyzes each fact of battling and evaluates all in the mere tenth of a second, truly amazing." _Andrew thought.

"_I don't think I've seen someone last this long against Luxray even when the Pokémon rarely attacks."_ Chase thought.

"_There's never been a person who's fought any of my Pokémon without fear or anything that would suggest he's fearful." _ Andrew thought.

"_Truly, we are the same!"_ the two thought at the same time.

The two Pokémon continued to battle as the two finished having their thoughts about each other. The two smiled and continued ordering different maneuvers while airborne and on the ground. Andrew began to think about his next move while Chase just tried stiff to see if it would work on his Pokémon…that didn't really work for either of them so they went back to their own tactics as Andrew began to get a headache from thinking too much.

"Chase we may be the same, but there's just one more test I want to conduct to prove this theory, will you be up for that?" Andrew asked.

"I've never scored lower than a 95% on any test, bring it on." Chase declared.

"Ferrothorn, Explosion!" Andrew called out.

Ferrothorn began charging its power and was on the verge of releasing it when Chase returned Luxray and the charge detonated. Andrew walked through the smoke to Chase with Ferrothorn back inside its PokéBall. Andrew stopped in front of Chase who was now panting uncontrollably due to the enormous blast that had filled the room.

"You pass." Andrew said flatly.

"Wait, what?" Chase asked. "That was the test, blow up your Pokémon and see what I was going to do?"

"Pretty much, my gut said if Chase is really the kind of guy who's like me in anyway, he would rather return his Pokémon for safety instead of going through the Explosion and finding out the hard way that his Pokémon couldn't survive it. Then by my standards, you've won the battle. Only the person who's willing to risk the win over risking their Pokémon is the true winner of them all."

"That's wasn't the battle I wanted, I wanted a serious knockout battle where I could feel like a winner, not so you could hand me the win on a silver platter."

"I take it then you're entering the tournament?" Iain said from the sidelines.

"Sure, but on one condition." Chase said inching closer to Andrew. "Should the American Team win, a free-for-all battle takes place in which Szac, Andrew, and myself battle each other and the winner of that match gains the title, deal?" he finished putting his hand out.

Iain shook it without hesitation and approved of it and said he's talk it over with the executive battle manager. Iain and the other British team members left behind him and the rest of the teams were left alone.

"So now what?" Szac asked.

Everyone looked around the area and found they were the only ones there. Alejandro looked up the streets and still found no one. Three seconds later…PARTY! Well, that's putting it in perspective for both Andrew and Chase who never had that experience. It was more or less a celebration in their honor as well as Szac's for finally representing the team that had still yet to arrive. But many questions still remained unanswered to everyone. For Star, how will I ever get Lucario to listen to me? For Brittany, what can I do next to Gijo-kun, nya? For Rei, what size do those shoes come in? For Gijo, who am I, or better who was I? For Alejandro, what do I do now? For Daisy, what's my next big prank? For Szac, what comes next? And for Andrew and Chase both, when is our next big battle and are we really the same?

Chapter eight completed, nya. Next time: a little more into another character who is yet to be introduced, nya. Also, the first of many secrets hidden by the characters and their ties to a certain person who is yet to be named, nya. Until, next time, nya.


	9. Chapter 9

Here's chapter 9 of my Songfic. Last time Chase and Andrew had a battle of mind over matter with Chase declared the winner much to his chagrin. With the tournament close approaching and all the teams assembled nothing else should go wrong, right?

**DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NO CONNECTIONS TO POKEMON HOWEVER MUCH I LIKE TO****THINK I DO. PLEASE DON'T REPORT ME FOR A SUIT FILE.**

International Tournament File 009: Keep Up the Drive

A week before the tournament's opening ceremony and Chase, Szac, and Andrew had been declared as the American team after an intense debate and a conditional response.

"If you allow Andrew to join the American team with his Ferrothorn, then you can have the chance for the authorities to apprehend him with no interference from the rest of us harboring him from the officials." Iain said with a very powerful voice.

"Mister Micheals, you have a compromise!" the justice declared hitting the podium with his hammer. "Court is adjourned!"

Andrew was shown leaning up against the wall with his arms crossed smiling to himself with Szac and Chase in the corridor awaiting the response. Andrew delivered the good news and the three returned to hotel to find a truly disturbing scene.

"Gijo-kun, nya!" Brittany yelled jumping out from nowhere pouncing on Gijo.

"Having fun?" Szac said teasingly with a small snicker.

"Just wait shrimp, once she's done with me, your next." Gijo said with a crazed look in his eye.

Szac backed off slowly as Brittany continue to cuddle Gijo to the point of choking. Andrew and Chase both turned around and left the hotel bursting into laughter and returning a moment later with straight faces staring at the two on the ground.

"Why do you do that anyway?" Chase asked looking down at Brittany.

"Because he's so kawaii, nya!" she said still cuddling on him.

"Not really what I meant; I meant why you do that to only him and not someone like Szac or one of the other girls in the hotel." Chase explained.

"Because I saved her once and she hasn't been able to move away from that." Gijo standing up and walking away with Galvantula following him. "Just leave me alone…" he said turning to Brittany.

Brittany sat there in silence and looked back up to the American team members with a confused look on her face.

"I think you got him mad." Andrew said stating the obvious. "I'll go talk to him."

Andrew made his way up when Brittany gripped his jacket and pulled him back and walked up herself.

"I got him mad, I need to apologize, nya." She said with a confident smile making her own way up to Gijo's room.

Brittany knocked on the door with a simple "Go away" from Gijo. Brittany continued to knock and even stated that she would continue to do so until Gijo opened the door. Gijo opened the door and looked at Brittany with a near emotionless face.

"There, I opened it." He said shutting the door in her face.

"Alright, nya. Liepard, Sucker Punch, nya!" she ordered to her Pokémon.

Liepard struck the door with a simple strike opening the door to find Gijo jumping out the window. Brittany saw Gijo looking back up at her and running with Galvantula.

"Hold up, nya. Liepard, come on, nya." She said jumping out the window and running after him.

Brittany made the chase last for several minutes until Gijo's young age got the better of him causing him to tire giving Brittany the time to catch up to him.

"Let's talk, Gijo-kun, nya." She said compassionately inching towards him.

When Brittany was mere inches from Gijo Brittany felt a small rumble as did Gijo as the ground from beneath began to give away from underneath them.

"Hoe?" Brittany exclaimed as the two fell down with the Pokémon.

"Galvantula, return!" Gijo called out as the two were falling into what seemed like thirty feet.

Brittany also returned her Pokémon as the two finally hit the ground to find Andrew looking down the hole.

"What's up?" he asked with a hint of derision.

"At the moment, everything but us." Gijo said. "Can you get us out?"

"Ooh, no can do. See I used Ferrothorn's Gyro Ball the dig that hole so you two could have some alone time and I can't let you out until you apologize to Brittany, Gijo." Andrew explained.

Gijo and Brittany's jaw dropped to the ground as Andrew instructed Ferrothorn to stay on top of the hole and only to let them out when Gijo had apologized.

"Bye-bye." He said teasingly while giving a smug look to wards the two.

"Great, just great!" Gijo said pacing back and forth through the hole. "Next time I see that delinquent, I'm gonna kill him."

"Why don't we just attack Ferrothorn, nya?" Brittany asked.

"A few reasons; one, he has a natural defense that beats even Pokémon that are said to be legendary and a special defense that tops all other non-legendary Pokémon, two, even if we did beat him how do we climb up? This wall was cut completely flat by that Gyro Ball attack and anymore than that and we're talking ice-like friction and three, our Pokémon can't reach that high in either speed to use a physical attack or the height in which to hit it at long range. So, looks like we're stuck here until someone else comes and gets us out." Gijo explained sitting down; as he did his phone rang and alerted him to a text from Andrew reading, "I have already alerted the other occupants of the hotel to not aid you in your problem, bye-bye…"

Gijo began shaking and screamed out until he began panting and Brittany trying to comfort him with no avail.

"Y'know it's all your fault, right?" Gijo said looking at her.

"Hoe?"

"If you hadn't always been cuddling with me this whole mess could have been averted. I told you to move past that time when I saved you and that Purrloin."

"Do you even remember that day, nya?" Brittany asked.

"Like it was yesterday…" Gijo said drifting off into one of his few memories explaining, "I had just begun working as an undercover police officer and had been getting a hard time at work. For me going back to my place was the only time of peace and nowhere else. You were my next door neighbor" he said looking towards Brittany, "and you weren't too social, living with your grandparents you were kept away from me at all costs due to my methods of enforcement towards other cops. They did something wrong it was up to me to stop them…at all costs. Anyway, it was rainy and I was coming back from work to find a stalker following you and grabbing at you and your purse. For me, watching someone getting harassed and not doing anything was just as bad as the one harassing so I stepped in and attacked him with Galvantula and arrested him. You never said anything until the two of us got back home to find your grandparents at their front door with several different emotions expressed; relief, disapproval, confusion, etc. and etc. They asked you what happened and you explained the whole situation down to the slightest movement.

"You had begun to walk home from the market when a stray Purrloin began following you, and you having a thing for all things cute scooped it up in your arms and began to carry it home not realizing that it had a collar on it. As you walked down the street a noblewoman stopped you and demanded that you give the Purrloin to her as it was her property. You noticed the Purrloin frightened expression upon seeing the woman and refused. When she wanted to use force you attacked her with your shopping bag out of fear. She fell backwards and saw Purrloin growling at her alerting her to the fact she was against her. She cursed you and vowed to get even before you even arrived back at your house. From what I dug up she hired a hit man to take the sleeping Purrloin in its PokéBall from your purse and when he got started he went into a state of full-on stalker and when you reached the part of me saving you your grandparents were shocked and amazed apologizing for everything they ever thought of me. I told them it was my duty to serve and protect and in this case, my privilege. You took that the wrong way and began this whole thing where you think I'm in love with you. I've told you many times that I don't reciprocate those feelings but you always thought I was being modest. But I envied you; I envied you that you had so many memories than what I had before Galvantula that part of me wanted to get to know you."

Brittany giggled at the serious face that Gijo had on when he said that he envied her. She then thought back to her own past and hit Gijo on the head.

"What was that for?" he asked tending to his head.

"You don't know how good you got it, do you, nya?" she said. "Without memories, there's no room for sadness and pain, nya. You never knew anything about me and I can imagine if you did you'd think I was the worst person to be around, nya. My parents died when I was six and me and my sisters had to make our own way in the world, nya. We got gigs singing and got money that way until my sisters got sick and died from cardiac arrest, nya. You think I was always like that, nya? Anti-social, nya? When you think about, having no memories is better than having painful ones instead, nya."

Gijo hit her on the head as she did to him before and gave a estranged smile, "Try not to think of it as me not having any painful memories, but instead think of it as me having no happy ones." He said with Brittany looking over at him. "You do have an unfortunate past, but think about Andrew, he had no one to turn to after he lost his parents he has memories of that pain, but he also has memories of Bouffalant that are the happiest times of his life. Alejandro has the memory of his friends going to jail, but he has the memory of meeting the person who helped get them out. Chase never had the love of a family, but he coped with Luxray. Rei was taught that she could never battle because of the violence, but she found a love for both battle and show. Iain I found out recently that he was under the whip of his parents when they were around and when they weren't he had to cope with the feeling of not being loved, but instead his happiest memories are of his partner. Ashley and Jon are a regular Romeo and Juliet, but they've found joy in the memories of being friends. Star has the memory of being threatened by her father, but has the memory of being the greatest battler because of her mother's love. Daisy and Szac probably have their painful memories of abandonment from society and not being able to see one's family, but they have memories of the friends they've made along the way to where they are now. And you have the memory of losing part of your family, but finding it again. Not having memories is even more painful than not having a lifetime of happy memories. All I know of my past is a symbol of a slanted letter.

"Brittany I'm sorry, for making you feel as though I never I cared when in reality you and Star are the two most important people to me since I've had memories to look back on." Gijo said bowing to Brittany as they heard applause coming from up the hole.

The two found a radio on the bottom of Ferrothorn and that it was recording everything. Gijo and Brittany both dropped their jaws again and yelled into the radio.

"How long were you listening, nya?" Brittany asked.

"Since…always!" Rei's voice called out.

"Andrew! You're dead!" Gijo called out to the radio.

"Far from it, shrimp. Ferrothorn fell asleep about an hour ago and it looks like you two are stuck in there until he wakes up." Andrew's voice said.

"How long is that?" Gijo said getting nervous.

"At the least, two hours, at most, eight." He said very flatly.

Gijo froze in his position and began to freak out as Brittany jumped on him cuddling him…to the extreme. Andrew's voice could be heard laughing from the radio.

"So I get to play with Gijo-kun for about seven hours, nya?" she said still cuddling him.

"I gave Ferrothorn the industrial sleeping pills so…yeah." He said as the other trainers began to laugh hysterically. "Have fun, Brittany-san." He said.

Throughout the rest of Ferrothorn's nap one could hear Gijo screaming from the bottom of the whole.

"STOP IT! NO, DON'T DO THAT, IT TICKLES! HEEEEEEELP!"

After Ferrothorn woke up one could see Gijo in a heap with Brittany still holding on to him. After the two reached the outside of the hole Gijo ran back to the hotel and locked all the doors and windows to his room. Brittany went back up to her room and began writing in a small journal which became apparent to Rei.

"Whatcha writing, lover-girl?" she asked in a suggestive tone.

Brittany yelped and tried to hide her journal with Rei continuing to try to grab it from her. This went on for several minutes until Rei finally grabbed and opened it to the page she was writing on. Rei was inches away from reading it when Brittany tackled her like a football player causing her to drop it. Brittany grabbed it and locked it with a combo lock and began to sigh out of relief.

"Your secrets are soon to be figured out, lover-girl. Don't think it isn't obvious for me and the other girls. See ya." She said waving back to her.

Brittany sighed out of relief again and looked across the hall at Gijo's closed door and simply muttered the words, "I'll never doubt you again…"

Chapter nine finished. Next, the tournament is only a day away and one of the members is missing, what is the team going to do find this trainer? Is it the work of another team or of their own volition? Ja nee.


	10. Chapter 10

Here is chapter ten of my Pokémon Songfic. As the tournament draws closer to beginning the teams are anxiously waiting for the opening ceremony to start wondering what kind of people they will meet and battle along the way. But what happens when a new player enters and jeopardizes the whole group that one of the team members has tried to pull together from the beginning of all of this? New OC submitted and will be used in this story, enjoy.

**DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NO CONNECTIONS TO POKEMON HOWEVER MUCH I LIKE TO THINK I DO. PLEASE DON'T REPORT ME FOR A SUIT FILE.**

International Tournament File 010: Withstand the Test

Less than twenty four hours until the opening ceremony began at the just now finished Pokémon Battle Dome. Most of the teams stayed in constant anticipation wondering who they would have to battle in the first round…well, all except for the Japan team. Gijo and Brittany had just recently fixed their situation and Star was as nervous as ever. Okay, granted Star is always nervous to no end, but there was just something different this time around. She seemed to be always be looking over her shoulder thinking something was behind her, kept double checking her stuff, and always locking the door to everywhere she went and not letting anyone in before they identified themselves.

As the day progressed Star's anxiousness caught the attention of every trainer in the hotel and not in a good way.

"This is really starting to get annoying, Star." Iain said as she jumped ten feet in the air after he startled her. "What's going on, and don't neglect the details."

"I feel like someone's looking for me…" Star said looking back over her shoulder. "For the past few days I've noticed this really creepy guy around the hotel staring at every room I enter."

"Star" Iain said compassionately. "If anybody's looking for someone, they're looking for Andrew, he's the escaped felon, and we are the ones harboring him so if they're spying on you initially it's to take out the weakest link to get to Andrew."

"Quite the charmer ain't ya?" Gijo said coming down the stairs. "Brittany has been confined to quarters for the rest of the day so we can tackle your stalker without 'nya' every five words."

"You think it's a stalker?" Iain asked with disbelief.

"That statement can go one of two ways; on the plus side it means that the people that we're currently neighbors with aren't felons like Andrew, or on the minus side it means you don't think Star is pretty enough that she would gain a stalker." Gijo said stepping back. "Have at it." He said motioning towards Iain.

Star simply turned and ran away out of the hotel with the slightest hint of tears in her eyes. Iain and Gijo looked at each other and continually try to understand the situation.

"Okay, this is going to be our last try to figure this out…" Gijo said after half an hour of discussing. "We upset Star by pointing out her paranoia was simply that without giving relevant thought?"

"If that's true why should we confirm this, ever since Andrew stepped in we have to cover up his messes with bounty hunters, police, and the occasional stalker all of which were blasted by his Ferrothorn's Solarbeam."

"True again, but we agreed that that last idea was going to be the last suggested." Gijo pointed out standing up and going outside.

When Gijo looked out the door to find Star hiding by the door to find she wasn't there. _Uh-oh_ Gijo thought. Gijo continued to look at the scenery and even ventured out to the farther areas but to no avail found no sign of Star anywhere. Gijo ran back into the hotel and yelled out that Star was missing. After the other trainers came down three were missing including Star; Brittany for obvious reason and surprisingly Alejandro who came down drudgingly to the news. After everyone was down including Brittany Gijo delivered the news that Star's reasons for her disappearance are one of two; she ran away due to the distrust between he and the other trainers, or her possible stalker abducted her.

With the other trainers help Gijo and Brittany formed search parties specific to everyone's team so as not to get separated before the opening ceremony…in six hours. Iain, Ashley, and Jon began looking in a secluded of the stadium perfect for hiding when the three ran into a hooded figure walking casually through the tournament grounds.

"Excuse me!" Ashley yelled out to the figure.

The figure turned and the English found them facing a boy no older than Andrew if not slightly younger with a blank stare that seemed to pierce through the soul. There was silence for several seconds as he kept walking by them without so much as a second glance. Ashley grabbed his arm and turned him around.

"Have you seen this girl?" she asked showing him a picture of Star.

The boy chuckled and removed Ashley hand and took of his hood revealing black hair and green streaks which seemed to be the same color as his eyes.

"Yeah, but I've been looking for her too…" he said chuckling as he walked away.

"Maybe there was some truth to her paranoia." Iain said as the figure looked back at them and grinned a near sinister grin.

Jon had just finished a phone conversation explaining the possible candidate for Star's stalker. The teams assembled where they relayed their information that they had received all except Alejandro who kept having a curious look on his face and closed his eyes and held his hands together in a meditation stance.

"Ohm…" he repeated several times unbeknownst to everyone except Chase and Szac.

"What are you doing?" Szac asked.

Alejandro didn't listen but continued to say "ohm" over and over and opened his eyes and ran off with another word while sending out Darmanitan. Alejandro ran through trees and bushes over to a secluded area of the forest where Star was shivering in a near state of panic. After seeing Alejandro she calmed down slightly and walked to him.

"Stay where you are…" Alejandro said to her.

Star stopped in her tracks as a blast came through the field not enough to kill, but to knock out. Star almost screamed but Alejandro put his hand over her mouth.

"We don't want him to find you." Alejandro said looking out from behind a bush.

"I already know she's over there!" a figure called out on top of a large dragon Pokémon. "I, Rex Ultim, have been sent to extract her from this area and return to her home, by order of Lieutenant Victor Surge."

Star screamed after hearing that name and hid behind Alejandro. Alejandro looked at Rex as he was named and at the Pokémon he rode on.

"How does a brat like you get such rare Pokémon like Hydreigon and alternately colored at that?" Alejandro asked tauntingly.

"Careful, he and I have a bit of a temper. Dragon Pulse!" Rex ordered as Hydreigon fired the large energy blast.

The blast came within inches from Alejandro and Star when Lucario and Darmanitan fought it back. Star looked up and saw Lucario look at the Hydreigon and back at Star and nodded. Star stood up after looking at Lucario and narrowed her eyes bringing out her other personality.

"Lucario, Aura Sphere!" she called which Lucario obeyed with no question asked.

The concentrated ball of energy fired itself at Hydreigon never going of target and hit the large Pokémon in the center of its main body. Falling to the ground Rex returned his Pokémon and pressed a small button on his wrist rigging a bike to come and catch him which he rode away in. Star panted and fainted after Rex was out of sight.

Alejandro returned with Star in a solemn face and came in expecting many questions. Surprisingly, only Andrew, Chase, and, Gijo were still awake. Gijo narrowed his eyes at Star and asked for an explanation.

"Allow me!" Rex's voice came from the door. "Star released her inner personality again and attacked me and Hydreigon causing her to black out as she always does."

"How do you know so much about her?" Chase asked eyes closed.

"Ask Alejandro." He said coming and sitting down at an empty table.

Alejandro kept the same solemn face and raised it as he knew the question was coming.

"What do you know amigo?" Andrew asked.

"I know how she can embrace both personalities at her own will. We're the same, me, Star, and even Rex over there. On my exchange trip to America I came across him training alone and how when we battled he would change styles from defensive to offensive in a heart-beat. People who are born with twin personalities are born this way through intense battling and a psychological nerve activates in the brain turning us into people who cannot be defeated except by our own. Star can be taught to be like this if she would stop be afraid and be left to fend for herself. After my father died and mother left I was left to just that and in time I gained my second personality control. Rex's parents were killed by operatives of an evil organization for not joining them to raise him as double-personality battler. After that he was toughened up in the mountains and became who he is. These personalities can only manifest under times of great stress until you have learned to embrace this as part of your life and then they become yours to command." Alejandro explained.

"What about you? What happens when you enter this other personality?" Chase asked.

"I enter a state of Nirvana, I can meditate much like Buddhist monks, but with it I can fully use my Darmanitan's Zen Mode and not lose no matter what." Alejandro said. "Star and Rex have the preferred personalities. They can concentrate their Pokémon's attacks and turn them into unstoppable weapons. For me it's been my mission to stop anyone else for hurting because of these personalities."

"Finally, why are you here?" Andrew said turning to Rex.

"I'm part of the Southern European team part of the Italian division, but when I learned Star was here I had to test the ability of her other personality and the only to do that was to cause stress on her like no other, by reminding her of her violent biological father who she's be running from for this whole time." Rex explained.

Star woke up and found herself back in the hotel with Rex and Alejandro next to her.

"Personality trainers use Pokémon that best exemplify their hidden personality; Darmanitan's meditation best exemplifies my power, Hydreigon's three heads control is the best way to exemplify Rex's extra power of multiple concentration, and Lucario reads auras and Star is the most fascinating person who has this power, to concentrate and to amplify. Through simple means of thought Star can concentrate and amplify power to make even the most insane decision knock out a Pokémon in one shot, Lucario is her partner because of the strange Aura that emanates from her. You've seen this haven't you Gijo?" Alejandro said.

Gijo nodded remembering how she defeated the Magmar with a simple Fire Punch.

"But because of this her father sought to use it as a weapon against Team Rocket who did something to him in his past and found Star as the only way of getting revenge, but she was saved by her mother." Rex explained.

"Is she okay?" Star said fully awake.

"She is under police protection until your biological father has been caught by any police." Gijo explained reassuring her.

Star sighed out of relief when an explosion at the hotel plaza sounded alerting the other trainers to the blast.

"Where are you!" a very strong sounding man said looking at hotel and saw Alejandro in the window and fired a PokéBall at him. Alejandro breathed out at it and Darmanitan in Zen mode stopped it and sent it back at the man. "I know you have my daughter!" he yelled out pointing at Alejandro and Rex. "And I'm taking her back!"

Rex stepped out of the hotel with protest from Star telling him how dangerous he can be.

"I've never been afraid of death, its death that fears me." He said his eyes beginning to gain expression.

Rex looked at the large man who was undoubtedly Star's father and had his head fall forward and come back a second later with a very large expression.

"Hydreigon, let's finish this before it even starts! Focus Blast!"

"Don't make me laugh, Electivire, Thunder Punch!" Star's father, Surge called out.

Just as Electivire had been sent the three of Hydreigon's heads fired a Focus Blast and putting them together and attacking both Electivire and Surge knocking them both out. Star had a look of utter surprise as Alejandro bent down next to her.

"You can learn to do that, just let one of us teach you." He said holding out his hand.

Star took it and shook declaring that during the tournament they would train to gain control of her second personality.

At the opening ceremony the fireworks sounded off and the torch had been lit and everyone looked up at the sky.

"Do you have anyone watching this tournament, Andrew?" Szac asked.

"I don't know, but if he is out there it all starts with this first step."

Star looked at Alejandro and Rex who both winked at her and gave her a thumbs-up which she returned.

"It won't happen overnight for these two it took years, but for me, I want to do it in three weeks, help me out, please mother." She said closing her eyes.

"THE INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENT FOR POKEMON BATTLES HAS OFFICIALLY BEGUN!"

Chapter ten complete: thank you for Rex, he really helped make this all come together, hope you don't mind the tweaking. Next: The tournament has started and a bet has already been made that involves Szac? What could anyone want with our friendly wild-child? Next time: Szac in the Spotlight: Tournament Round 1


	11. Chapter 11

Here's chapter eleven of my Songfic. Now that the tournament has started Andrew, Chase, and Szac of team America are now in the first round, but what if there was more on the line than just Andrew's objective to find Bouffalant? Who would be there to step up?

**DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NO CONNECTIONS TO POKEMON HOWEVER MUCH I LIKE TO THINK I DO. PLEASE DON'T REPORT ME FOR A SUIT FILE.**

International Tournament File 011: Szac in the Spotlight; America vs. Russia

The first day of the tournament and the tournament listing put the first round as America against Russia in a best of three battles. The initial trainers had been declared as Chase and Andrew in that round and Szac as an alternate. As a prerequisite to the battle the two teams met up at the main area for the battle. The American team entered the stadium and waited for several minutes getting slightly ticked by the other team.

"The only way that this would happen is if they were all girls and were doing each other's hair." Andrew said jokingly.

The other two began laughing to themselves when they heard the doors open and found the Russian team coming in as two adolescent girls and one pre-adolescent girl. Andrew slapped his forehead and thought to himself, _what'd I tell ya?_

"Sorry we're late." The apparent leader of the group apologized. "We had to do each other's hair."

_I'm going to die a slow, painful death,_ Andrew thought. "Don't worry about it" he said knowing it still bugged him. "My name is Andrew; this is Chase, and Szac."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Sandra, this is Alena, and Karina" the leader said pointing to her team mates in descending order of height. "We are known as the Ice Sisters, but you can call us by those names if you want."

"Yeah, we'll make note of that" Chase said sarcastically. "But we were told that you three wanted to make a bet with us for something. I need that to be elaborated."

"You got that right." The shortest one Karina said. "We want him" the three said in unison pointing at Szac.

Szac, Chase, and Andrew together burst out into laughter after several seconds with Chase falling on the floor while becoming practically hysterical. Andrew and Szac leaned up against the wall to keep from falling like Chase. All three of the Russian team members tried to keep a straight face but failed by snapping.

"You don't understand, we're serious. This Szac kid deserves better than what you two can offer to him." Alena said cracking her knuckles.

"I fear whether or not she's going to finish that sentence." Chase whispered to Andrew.

Szac looked down and looked at his watch and bowed leaving the room. Mightyena followed him with a confused look on the faces on all the Russian Team members.

"It's Monday. He takes a six hour nap on Mondays and can't be woken up or else he goes berserk." Chase explained.

"Wouldn't that interfere with the match-up time?" Sandra asked.

"Yeah, so he's agreed to sit out this round." Andrew explained. "But, that aside, why do want Szac, in one sentence apiece."

Sandra started from the left, "You mentioned his berserk side and we would like to find the secret to that."

Alena commented, "As a trainer he is much more adept to living with his Pokémon in the more wild areas which can help our relationship with Pokémon."

Karina made the final comment while giving off a slight blush, "He's just really cute!"

"_That death better be faster; at this rate I'll die from this at age eighty-two." _Andrew thought to himself.

Chase bowed apologetically, "I'm sorry but we can't agree to those terms. Szac is not only a member of our team and our team alone, but he is far younger than the other members of all the other teams. I feel that leaving him with you might not be as beneficial as you make it all cracked up to be."

"So your chicken and afraid that the Ice Sisters are gonna make you look bad, fine suit yourself, boy are those people in Russia gonna think America's this great big coward." Sandra taunted.

"Shut your mouth!" Andrew yelled to them turning around. "Who's more cowardly, the one who's willing to run or the one who attacks an individual in a team? We accept your terms, but only to prove to you that we are not cowards of battle."

Chase slapped his forehead and led Andrew back to the hotel. "Idiot!" he said. "What do you think you're doing accepting those terms, what if we really do lose, how're we gonna explain this to Szac's parents?"

"You make it seem like losing is really an option." Andrew said.

"Why do you have to act so tough? Sure; you're sticking up for your country's integrity, but at the cost of a young kid, why?"

"Because the last time I was called weak was when I cried over my parents leaving me. Now, whenever someone calls anything or anyone associated with me weak I will fight with all my being. But before the battle I need to ask Alejandro something."

"Like what?" Chase asked.

"It's possible that Szac's condition is similar to the dual personalities that Alejandro, Star, and Rex have. If that's true then maybe we can use that to our advantage."

"Again; idiot!" Chase said. "If that were the case Szac wouldn't have to have such an obscure catalyst as being woken up on Monday?"

"Oh, I hadn't thought about that." Andrew said.

"That'd be a first." Chase said sarcastically. "Chances are it's an idiosyncrasy that Szac holds onto and therefore has become deep wired into his brain, but even still we should talk to Alejandro."

Back at the hotel Alejandro was meditating and opened his eyes a split-second before Andrew and Chase walked in.

"What can I do for you two?" he asked standing up.

"What can you tell us about Szac's condition is it like yours?" Andrew asked.

"Figured that question would come up sooner or later so sit down" Alejandro said motioning towards two chairs. "Szac is an interesting case, but chances are this isn't like me or Star. Our personalities are brought on by emotional stress while Szac's is literally on a timer. Chase has probably thought of this but it is probably an idiosyncrasy."

"_Oh, I hate being wrong…" _Andrew thought to himself while Chase kept a smug look on his face.

"My initial guess is that Szac has gone through some kind of situation that has given him this idea that Monday is the one day that he can't be woken up. In a way it's like OCD for him." Alejandro explained.

"Well, we only have two hours until the match and we have to carefully move Szac to the stadium with earplugs." Chase said sarcastically.

"Given that those three divas use Ice-types that should be enough to know what to use. Chase with Fire Fang and myself with Iron Head." Andrew said to himself. "But above all if they try anything funny, they'll have me to answer to."

Alejandro opened one of his eyes and thought to himself, _"Andrew my new friend, you have no idea on what you're getting yourself into. The Ice Sisters are world renowned for their chilling maneuvers that they'll use whatever kinds of tactics they can think of to ensure their victory. If you're not willing to be called weak you'll have to be able to see past your own nose. But above all don't neglect Szac…he'll be the swing vote in this battle, until then good luck; against those sisters…you'll need it."_

At the stadium the two teams had taken the field with Szac asleep on the bench as part of his usual behavior. Chase and Andrew looked at the three sisters all confident like they already knew the outcome. Andrew gritted his teeth and Chase cracked his knuckles while Szac let out a huge snore. Andrew lost most expression on his face except for a disgruntled look that he and Chase shared. The Russian team squealed thinking that what Szac had done was "simply adorable" (not my words).

"Attention participants!" the emcee shouted from the booth facing the center of the arena. "This will be a best of three battles, whichever team wins two out of the three battles will be declared winner and what apparently seems to be the winner of the custody of the young boy sleeping on the bench! Best of luck to you all!"

"Like we need luck." Alena said confidently.

The referee took his mark while Chase and Karina took theirs. The ref confirmed with both of them and the two began the battle.

"Luxray, make them collapse!" Chase yelled.

"Smoochum, time for a charm-fest." Karina said with a wink.

Andrew and Chase looked with disbelief at their opponent who began blowing kisses to the audience gaining their approval. A drop of sweat dropped from both Chase and Luxray with an unenthusiastic order for a Crunch attack. Luxray charged Smoochum who had reacted to the attack with extreme fear. Smoochum ran back and forth while yelping for anyone to help it. Almost the entire audience glared at Chase who didn't take the rejection well.

Alejandro up in the stands kept a watchful eye on the Russian team and chuckled to himself. _"Like I thought, they use underhanded tricks to gain the approval of the crowd by charming them with their physical appearance which can be seen as beautiful, but in my eyes I see them as both beautiful and dangerous. Like it's said, 'every rose has its thorns.'"_

Chase continued to battle what seemed like two opponents; Karina and the entire grandstands. Andrew slapped his forehead with his hand and shook it sideways.

"So brain-boy, what're gonna do now?" Karina said tauntingly.

"What?" Chase asked.

"With the entire audience under my spell, it will mean certain failure from your team, and from your family." She said acting much older than she was.

Chase looked at his hands and then to the crowd to find Alejandro staring right at him. Alejandro, still unaffected by the charm given off by Smoochum, nodded at Chase while seemingly staring at his soul. _"He's right, this is just a formality. All throughout this battle I've been worried about only how I look in the eyes of others. What kind of legacy should I leave for my family, one of cowardice for my own gain, or one of bravery for my friends? If Luxray can't trust me who will?"_

"Seems like you've thrown the match!" Karina declared. "Smoochum, Blizzard!"

Smoochum shot a maelstrom of intense snow clumps in a frenzy pushing Luxray when Chase lifted his head.

"Operor non fatigo. Iustus operor quis ego dico vos. Tentatio per Thunder!" Chase ordered in Latin literally meaning, "Don't worry. Just do what I tell you. Attack with Thunder!"

Luxray grinned and let loose its own storm as its eyes shined a spectral yellow that struck Smoochum without missing by an inch. Smoochum fell back with a burnt face and swirls in place of its eyes. The ref called it and the three sisters were in disbelief.

"Why?" Karina asked. "Why did you attack with all those people who were against it?"

Chase turned to her with a smile and replied in Latin, "Prior, res validus video vidi visum preteritus hic quod iam quod animadverto posterus." This literally means, "Priority, being able to see past the here and now and see the future."

"Andrew, be careful of their tricks, they probably spend days on figuring out this kind of stuff." Chase warned.

"As long as we stay according to plan, we'll be fine." Andrew said getting up from the bench.

"Now to take out the hot-head." Alena said getting up.

The ref confirmed with the two and waited for an announcement from the emcee.

"For those of you wondering, this boy in the red corner is indeed the very same that the police are in hot pursuit of, please don't be alarmed as he is controlled in this environment! Begin!"

"Ferrothorn, show 'em what you got!" Andrew throwing his ball.

"Glaceon, put 'im on ice!" Alena said throwing her ball in a pirouette.

The two Pokémon took the stage and made no hesitation to begin the battle.

"Ferrothorn, Iron Head!" Andrew called out.

Ferrothorn lowered its head and charged while hardening its head for the attack. Alena smiled and chuckled and snapped her fingers signaling Glaceon to use an Ice Beam. The beam of frozen water went past Ferrothorn's face and instead caught onto the tentacles weighing it down gradually. Several inches from the center Ferrothorn dropped like a sack of bricks with Andrew gritting his teeth.

"So, you delinquents are the equivalents of weaklings." Alena said giving of a pompous laugh.

Alejandro face turned to sorrow as he looked at Andrew overflowing with rage. _"If you do this, you prove yourself strong in heart, but weak in mind. For once in your life think of consequences. If you've ever had to fear them now is that time."_

"Ferrothorn, Explosion!" Andrew yelled out.

Ferrothorn detonated itself and covered the entire field in the blast including Glaceon. Andrew returned Ferrothorn as all knew it had fainted.

"Even if Ferrothorn fainted it was by his master's attack and therefore my win!" Andrew called out to the other team who just laughed at him. "What!" Andrew said as Glaceon appeared from the blast virtually unscathed. "But it's not possible…" Andrew said weakly before falling to the ground on his knees.

"_You may have been strong to use the attack, but even Chase couldn't have predicted what had just happened."_ Alejandro said about to get up when he saw Chase whispered something to Andrew and Andrew nodded in approval. Alejandro sat back down and smiled confidently. _"At least one of you thinks."_

Chase pulled out of his pocket a small alarm clock and placed it next to Szac's ear. Placing it on a string and pole the two stepped back and allowed it to ring in his ear. Szac's eyes almost pooped out his head as he drearily walked up to the stadium.

"Why is there a third round?" Szac said in a very feral voice.

"They tricked us." Chase said indifferently. "They tricked us all."

"Then they'll pay." Szac said pulling his PokéBall from his pack.

"Alright, let's finish this formality quickly and take our bounty! We'll take good care of you." Sandra said pointing at Szac with her Pokémon already prepared; Froslass.

Szac threw his PokéBall sending out Mightyena and growling all the while which caught Chase's attention in which he relayed to Andrew.

"I know what Szac is." He declared.

The match began and the two Pokémon rammed into each other with both trainers proving an unwavering confidence in their abilities. Szac roared and Mightyena reacted to it by attacking with Shadow Ball. The orb charged in its mouth and shot itself at Froslass making a clean hit while giving out a small shriek. Szac reacted and put his head down.

"Do you enjoy cheating?" he asked Sandra.

"What?" Sandra asked nervously.

"Your Froslass just told me that you used it as a shield to protect Glaceon from Ferrothorn being unaffected by its Explosion." Szac declared pointing an accusing finger at Sandra.

Sandra gasped and cringed slightly and admitted but said she did it and enjoyed it. Szac, hearing this, roared again and Mightyena appeared behind Froslass and sharpened its eyes and then reacting to Szac's final orders for the battle.

"Giga Impact!" Szac said with completely emotionless eyes.

Mightyena, still up close to Froslass charged it and hit it to everyone's surprise. Szac turned his head from the fainted Froslass as Team America was declared the winner. Szac stumbled and fell to the ground asleep like he was still dreaming. Andrew was still sulking on the ground hitting the ground.

_"Interesting, secretly using Odor Sleuth to identify the Ghost-type and attack it with such a powerful move much to surprise of others. You've won my approval Szac, and you've saved yourself and your country's integrity." _Alenajdnro thought to himself on top of the stands.

Back at the hotel the three sisters apologized for their cheating to Andrew specifically, who, for some reason, was not present. The three all made compliments to Szac who they said was the most amazing battler ever and that they hoped to hear from America's team. Kneeling over all three kissed Szac on the cheek turning him three shades of red one after the other. Chase laughed and then put a more solemn face on as he remembered the conversation he had with Andrew concerning Szac.

"_I know what he is."_

"_Really, then tell me Mr. Know-it-all."_

"_No need to be snooty. Chances are his DNA is just slightly different from most people."_

"_How so?"_

"_I'd estimate that 5% of his DNA is that of a Pokémon's."_

"_What!"_

"_Most likely, as a secret experiment that my family was doing, Szac was their test subject on a Monday. They infused him with 5% Pokémon DNA, most likely a Poochyena's and when he woke up from the coma the same day he went on a rampage. Creatures can't grow out of habits like humans can, at that point Szac was using his Pokémon side as his dominant side. Now that habit is stuck on him and resorts him to become this tiny engine of destruction. If he would fall into the wrong hands they'd have an unstoppable weapon; a boy who speaks and is partially a Pokémon himself."_

"_Okay, Sherlock any other deductions?"_

"_He has elongated claws and fangs in this form and the ferocity of any beast-like Pokémon. I'd sooner say that Szac has the capacity to become the most acclaimed battler in the world."_

"_But above all, he'll always be our friend."_

Chase looked out the window and sighed, "Andrew, if you're close, don't hurt yourself trying. Szac still needs two older brothers to help him with his condition, like you said, 'he'll always be our friend.'"

On top of a large mountain Andrew stared at the snow-capped peak with a fire in his eyes with Ferrothorn following close behind.

"Now the real training begins…" Andrew said before walking off into the cold of night.

Chapter eleven complete. Hope you enjoyed that one. Next time; when you think of moms, you think hugs and kisses, not a bout between peace and chaos. Well, too bad for you because that's exactly what's about to happen. Next time; Alejandro: Peace of Mind; Central Europe versus Brazil. Sorry for the late update I'm preparing for the VGC tournament in Seattle. Sayonara.


	12. Chapter 12

Here's chapter twelve of my Pokémon fanfic. As the tournament progresses the Central European team goes up against the team from Brazil under the guidance of a person both mysterious and familiar. Gather your mind as this chapter takes us to one of characters tragic past.

**DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NO CONNECTIONS TO POKEMON HOWEVER MUCH I LIKE TO THINK I DO. PLEASE DON'T REPORT ME FOR A SUIT FILE.**

International Tournament File 012: Alejandro: Peace of Mind; Central Europe versus Brazil

Two days since Andrew had disappeared and the tournament continued on like he was never gone or like he was ever there. The one's who noticed were the residents of the hotel for the American, Japanese, Central European and British teams the American team specifically. The only one who seemed to be the only person not worried was Alejandro, but with that guy you could never tell. As it was time for the meeting between the two teams participating Alejandro led both Daisy and Rei into the room and began wait in silence.

Rei and Daisy noticed Alejandro's frenzied look as he saw the flag waving in front of him and continued to glare at it. The other team arrived from the side door attracting the attention of Alejandro, Rei, and Daisy. The team was led by a middle-aged woman and two men in their early twenties. Alejandro stared into the woman's eyes and recoiled back in surprise holding his eyes. The emcee stepped in between the two teams and approved the handshake for the teams. Alejandro shook the woman's hand while still shaken up.

"What are you doing here?" Alejandro asked keeping his eyes away from the eyes of his opponent.

"Is that any way to treat your mother, Ally?" the woman asked slightly frustrated.

"Mother!" Daisy asked in surprise.

"Ally!" Rei asked trying to suppress her laughter.

Alejandro averted his eyes from the other team and leaned back up against the wall explaining, "This is the woman that could be considered my mother. A woman who has been missing from my life for three years for the simple reason of finding love after the death of my father."

Rei's eyes were replaced by hearts and she grabbed Alejandro's mother's hands, "That's so romantic! I hope one day to find that same sensation and have it brought back to me."

"So you have a crush on Ally, huh?" Alejandro's mother asked tauntingly looking at Alejandro with half-opened eyes.

"Note the fact that it is simply a crush which I have not reciprocated, Maria." Alejandro explained to his mother now named Maria.

"And who is this cute girl?" Maria asked bending down to meet Daisy face to face.

"Daisy Villa" Alejandro said. "From Puebla, Mexico."

"How my son made teammates with a couple of knock-outs like you is beyond me." Maria said again taunting Alejandro.

Alejandro ran out of the room hand cringed over his mouth and outside and punched the wall and began breathing hard.

"Why is she here? I thought I was finally free of her…" He said before regaining his breath. "Three years, three years and she thinks she can act like a mother after all this time."

Rei and Daisy met Alejandro outside and walked back to the hotel with him. In the window Maria stood glaring at the team and whispered something to the two men on her team and mouthed through the window, "It ends now, boy."

Back at the hotel Alejandro locked the door to his room and began meditating to the waves given off by Darmanitan floating in the room. Alejandro began searching his memory for the answer.

"_We are gathered here to celebrate the union of this man and woman in holy matrimony." _A video screened showed the wedding of Alejandro's parents while he was five years old.

"_Alejandro, your father and I aren't splitting up no matter what happens. As long as we're alive we'll always be together."_ Maria said to a ten-year old Alejandro after learning about his friend's parents' divorce.

"_He was good man who lived life to the fullest and was fully aware of the danger he was in by fighting that Tauros; we will always remember you, Santiago." _A priest spoke as a fifteen year-old Alejandro clutched the hand of his Darmanitan while watching his mother weep for her husband.

"_What do you mean you're leaving?"_ Alejandro asked two days after the funeral.

"_Only until I find someone else, then you'll come live with us."_ Maria reassured as that was the last memory he had before his mother left.

Alejandro opened his eyes in a sweat with Rei and Daisy stood at the open door finding him panting.

"You okay? You look like you've seen a ghost." Daisy said.

Alejandro contemplated that statement for several seconds as his eyes practically popped out of his head.

"That's it. I know how to free myself from her." Alejandro said leaving the room with Darmanitan following.

The two girls following completely oblivious to the situation caught up to him while he had a new look of accomplishment on his face.

"It's over, woman." He said under his breath.

The rest of the teams met the Central European team at the stadium and wished them good luck.

"Is Andrew still gone?" Daisy asked out of concern.

"So far, but don't worry; he'll be here before the next round." Chase said with a reassuring smile.

On the actual stadium Rei and Daisy took their positions while the two men on the Brazilian team took theirs. The ref confirmed with the two teams and explained the rules.

"Today's match is a tag-team match followed by an exhibition one-on-one match between the Team Captains. The winner of today's match is the team to make the other team's Pokémon faint and win the Exhibition match. If neither team meets these prerequisites it will be placed to a vote by the judges. Battlers ready? Begin!"

"Ninetales!" Rei called out throwing the PokéBall.

"Monferno!" Daisy called out copying her partner.

The two men nodded to each other and sent out their Pokémon revealing themselves to be a Plusle and Minun. Rei laughed at them as they began the attack.

"Helping Hand!" the first one ordered as Plusle boosted Minun's attack.

"Thank-you, Minun, Discharge!" the second man called out alerting Minun to produce a frenzy of blue lightning covering the stadium which Plusle dodged with ease.

Ninetales and Monferno began hopping on the tips of their toes to keep from being hit by the sparks. Alejandro looked at his teams reactions and shook his head. He cupped his hand and placed it on the side of his face to project his voice.

"Girls, listen! Their using tactics that support each other using Plusle's and Minun's power in conjunction to subdue you!"

"English, please?" Rei called out.

"Their team is like a chain, find the weak link and this is as easy as pie." Alejandro explained.

"The weak link?" Daisy said under her breath. "Both Pokémon have low defenses but only one leaves itself unprotected. Monferno, Mach Punch on Plusle!"

Monferno charged Plusle at a speed impossible to dodge and made contact with Minun who had easily jumped in the way.

"Plusle, Helping Hand!" the first man called out.

Plusle raised Minun's power giving Minun the power to easily hit Monferno with a Shock Wave. The electro pulse hit Monferno recoiling him back to the other side of the field. Alejandro sighed out of disapproval. Rei thought about for awhile and came up with an idea.

"Ninetales, Attract!" Rei ordered while Ninetales fired a charm at Minun.

Minun's gender was unable to counteract the Attract and it was forced into a strong infatuation. Plusle began freaking out when Monferno got up close and hit it with a Fire Punch. Plusle fell back to its trainer with swirls in place of its eyes and was declared unable to battle. Ninetales then let loose a Flamethrower attack launching Minun back to its trainer with a similar result. Alejandro applauded and took his spot after high-fiving both of his teammates.

"Well, Maria. I guess it's time to finally rid myself of you." Alejandro said.

"Why don't you call me 'Mom'? Why do you insist on calling me 'Maria?'" she asked her son.

"That title belongs to an actual mother as opposed to someone who would abandon their son in his time of need. I want you out of my life, the life you ruined." He said throwing his PokéBall.

"Guess I need to teach you some manners. Go!" Maria said throwing her own PokéBall.

The light receded and revealed a Pokémon that struck fear into the hearts of all in attendance, Aerodactyl. Alejandro's mother looked at him with a brimming smile that wouldn't go away no matter how much Alejandro scowled at her.

"Is that supposed to scare me, that big-boned excuse for a bird?" Alejandro said taunting his mother's Pokémon.

"Let's see if that confidence can get you as far as your imagination. Aerodactyl, Air Slash!"

The ancient Pokémon slashed through the air creating air-waves capable of cutting through rock. Darmanitan dodged as they came which turned the match into a slow stalemate. Maria began to show a vein popping when she almost snapped, note the almost.

"Aerodactyl, Ancient Power!" she yelled out as though she was commanding the entire audience.

Aerodactyl kicked up several rocks and plunged them towards Darmanitan who continued to dodge them while keeping a large smile on its face. Maria started grumbling when she finally snapped towards Alejandro.

"I've done nothing to deserve this humiliation! What have I done in your life that has made you hated me so much!" She asked her voice full of rage.

"It's what you have never done." Alejandro said calmly. "You never were there for me, even before dad died. You left me to fend for myself when I was fifteen years old. But most of all you lied to me. The reason I hate you is not because of these things you've done to me, no, it's the opposite. It's the things you never did to me that I hate you for; you never told me the truth, you never complimented me, and I never heard simple words from you like 'please', 'thank you', and 'I love you.'"

"Please I always told the truth." Maria said beginning to regain her breath.

"Like the time you told me the day you and dad got married?" Alejandro asked. "Helps that you made that up because you couldn't live with the age you were really married at, thirty. You considered it an embarrassment that you were married to someone so late in life that you lied to me every day as to when you were born so I wouldn't put the pieces together. And what about the time that I told you I wanted to battle; you told me battling is for punks, people on the street who find pleasure in only the pain they cause others."

"I've…never…been ashamed of anything." Maria said losing her confidence.

"I've been living under your curse for eighteen years, but now I will free myself of it…" he said slowly walking towards her.

Time seemed to stop around the two of them as Alejandro came closer and closer to his mother. Alejandro placed his hand on his mother and closed his eyes and said under his breath, "Welcome to my life."

Maria opened her eyes to find herself in a room with windows lining it all around. She saw Alejandro in different places at the same time and at different ages. To the far right she saw a five year old Alejandro and two others five and ten years apart from the five year old Alejandro. The three turned to face Maria and the five year old motioned for her to join him in looking out the window.

Out of the window Maria saw a wedding between her and her late husband. When they were finally wed the five year old punched in the window and put his head down and disappeared. She then joined the ten year old who was looking at promise of never leaving from his mother and father. When the three hugged he too punched the window in disappearing. Maria looked out of the fifteen year old Alejandro's window at the funeral and watching herself leave her son. After which, just as before, he punched in the window and disappeared.

Maria fell to the ground on her knees when the eighteen year old Alejandro showed up before her.

"Painful to watch isn't it?" he asked.

"How could it not be?" she asked in return.

"Each one of these memory windows in my psyche was punched in this morning trying to clear my mind, but the more I tried the more I kept thinking about all the lies and pain you had passed off as love for me. When I finally punched them in, they repaired themselves." He said as the windows appeared again with the three ages reappearing.

"Why are showing me these things?" Maria asked.

"Because all my life I never showed who I was, but now I need you to tell me who you really are."

"I don't understand."

"One of my best friends is an ex-felon, a run-away, an amnesiac, they tell me about who they are and I can barely tell me anything about me. Tell me who you are, and where my real mother is."

"How did you know?"

"I may hate her, but she is still my mother and I can never forget what she looks like."

"Living happily on a ranch in Buenos Aries, and doesn't even know she has a son." Maria explained.

"All those times. My mother was married at a young age. She divorced my father, and you being the sweet person you are decided to fill those shoes but could never get away from your real objective. Am I not wrong?" Alejandro asked.

"You're father was targeted by the organized crime in Italy and was told to take a fall against their most viscous Tauros to protect you. I offered him police protection being an inside knowledge on the organization. He refused because they wanted your power. I originally was a government agent sent to investigate and found this out and knew that you would never be able to live safe unless they were dealt with."

"So for that you sacrificed my father. The one person who meant everything to me. Your curse is one of suspicion and now I know how to free myself from it."

"What do you mean?"

"Wondering all those who you were made me obsessed about finding out, but now I just need your name, your full name, and then we can go back."

"My full name is Maria Sanchez; if you want I'm from the Italian government on assignment from organized crime and my teammates are ex-mafia."

"And now, for the first time ever, I can live my life the way I want to." Alejandro said breaking them from the trance.

When the two opened their eyes they saw themselves back on the battlefield. Alejandro's eyes softened themselves and he smiled.

"Thank you." He said under his breath.

The two Pokémon were still battling and this time Aerodactyl had hit Darmanitan with Rock Slide changing it to Zen Mode. Alejandro's eyes softened all the more and he simply pointed his finger.

"Psychic…" he said as Darmanitan's eyes faded into a blue and an aura surrounded Aerodactyl.

Alejandro and Darmanitan began to sway and moved Aerodactyl to and fro until it fainted from dizziness.

"The winner is Team Central Europe!" the emcee stated as the stands erupted into applause.

Rei and Daisy joined Alejandro as he smiled back at them.

"You seem different." Rei noted.

"Because for the first time in my life I have answers to my own questions." He said looking back at Maria.

The stadium continued to applaud as three suspicious figures left the stadium grounds. One picked up on a cell phone and talked to the person on the other line.

"~is it him? ~" the person on the line asked.

"Yeah, it's him." The other said.

"~good then find the others, and don't come back until you have names of all of them~"

"Gotcha boss, the first one is named Alejandro. Pokémon is a Darmanitan strong in both active and Zen mode."

"~until next time, make no movements. I want them for myself~"

Deep back on the mountains.

"Never again!" Andrew yelled to the sky.

Chapter 12 complete.

Next time: Bravery is being able to stand up to your fears, but what if you have a fear deep rooted into a past that you have no reason for. Next time; Gijo's Past: For the Birds, Japan v. Australia


	13. Chapter 13

Here is the return of my original Pokémon story. As the tournament continues several things are going on currently; pasts are being revealed, old emotions are rising, new abilities are being realized, and even the chances of breaking up from teams.

**DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NO CONNECTIONS TO POKEMON HOWEVER MUCH I LIKE TO THINK I DO. PLEASE DON'T REPORT ME FOR A SUIT FILE.**

* * *

International Tournament File 013: Gijo's Past, For the Birds; Team Japan v. Team Australia

The tournament, now progressing rather slowly, was now gaining more and more publicity ever since Andrew had disappeared. Mixed emotions rose from every man, woman, and child somehow connected to this tournament on the disappearance of him. The occupants of the hotel housing the teams became tenser with each passing day after he had disappeared as no one had seen or heard from him since the battle against Russia. The only people not worried were Alejandro, because one can never tell what he's feeling, Iain, he knows that based on base power levels Andrew is one of the best, Chase, because he's the only one to fight him to standstill, and Gijo, because he really couldn't care less at the moment.

Actually, as opposed to his normal distant demeanor Gijo had been out of it since it was declared who Team Japan would battle for the next round. Gijo and Galvantula had both been one edge for the entire week before their battle against the team from Australia. Both Star and Brittany had noticed this especially when they noticed Gijo faint on the day they found out who they were battling in the next round.

Knocking on the door Star and Brittany walked in to find Gijo in the corner in near shock.

"Alright, Gijo, what's your problem?" Star asked bending over to look at him eye-to-eye.

"Trust me when I say this, you'll find out," he said leaving the room.

"Excuse me for a second Brittany," Star said leaving the room as well.

"Where're you going, nya?" Brittany asked.

"To get some answers," she said walking towards Alejandro's room.

In Alejandro's room he was found meditating as he always did and seemed to be in peace from what had recently happened to him. Star slammed the door open causing him to fall over in a heap.

"Next time; knock!" he said sitting back up.

"Yeah anyway this is about Gijo, I get the feeling that something is wrong," Star explained.

"You just now figure that out. I've known him for a month and I can figure out that he's mentally unsound," he said with a slight chuckle.

"Not what I meant. Ever since we learned we'd be fighting Australia in the next round and all he's been held up in his room and huddled in the corner," Star explained. "I seriously think that something has him freaked out."

Alejandro stood up and put his hand to his chin and thought for a few minutes and snapped his fingers and turned back to Star.

"Something about the Australian team freaked him out and that thing triggered a memory that has caused some sort of muscle memory fear or repulsion to whatever it was," Alejandro explained.

"So how do we help him?" Star asked expecting some kind of technical answer.

"You can't," Alejandro said bluntly making Star fall over. "These kinds of things can't be healed especially if left alone for as long as Gijo hasn't even had memory. Keep in mind after he lost his memory the first thing he remembers was Galvantula and being found by the police force. All he remembers, according to Brittany, is a slanted letter. So until the match I'd not worry about it."

"How can I not worry about it? Ever since I've left home it's been Gijo who's taken care of me and you as well," Star said leaving the room.

"Trust in your friend as I have learned to trust even a convicted felon," Alejandro said bowing.

Back outside Chase and Szac watched the scenery in complete silence. After taking a deep breath they both stepped back and were about to enter to find Brittany chasing Gijo…again.

"What's wrong with you, Gijo-kun, nya?" Brittany asked chasing after Gijo.

"I might ask you the same thing!" he shouted back at her.

"We might be able to help you, nya!" she said still chasing him.

Chase's eyes twitched slightly and put Brittany into a near choke hold.

"Say that thing again and I'll 'nya' you right upside the head," he said with an evil gleam in his eyes.

Brittany chuckled nervously and began running from Chase in terror. Szac fell slightly and walked into a vacant room and screamed loud enough to wake up the other occupants only for them to see the scene and all attributed it to that bad pizza they had for dinner last night.

Catching up with Brittany Chase picked her by her shirt and grabbed Gijo as well.

"I feel like a babysitter doing this but here goes," he said as he banged their heads together. "Now you guys along with Star have two hours until your match with Australia, now get ready!"

Star watching Gijo as he walked up to his room with Galvantula following behind him walked down the stairs to meet with Chase.

"What do you know about the Australian team? And what about them would have freaked Gijo out of his wits?" she asked which got Chase pondering the answer to her question.

"Well the three brothers are known for their aerial tactic to confuse their opponents, but a different has always motivated Gijo no matter who it was and he always charges head first into a battle and never thought about fear, but that might be it," he said.

"What? What is it?" Star asked

"Gijo has ornithophobia," Chase declared as Gijo fell down into his room.

"He has what?" Star asked unsure of what he said.

"Ornithophobia is the psychological term for a fear of birds and all other avianoids," Chase explained.

"Why would he have that?" Star asked not noticing that Gijo was behind them.

"Because two years after I was found by Galvantula I was kidnapped by a bird Pokémon and it left me on a cliff for three weeks before Galvantula found me and beat the living daylights out of that bird," Gijo explained. "Ever since, I've been able to do nothing but freeze up around birds and do nothing for myself and Galvantula reacts to that by going into a state of temporary paralysis."

"_It's just like Alejandro said, I'm just going to have to let myself deal with it. But will he get over it in time, and beside it's not like it's going to be a triple battle,"_ Star thought.

At the stadium the rest of the teams sat in their usual spots but were soon joined by an old and familiar face.

"Rex," Alejandro said.

"Alejandro," Rex said in return.

Rex sat down next to Alejandro and seemed to pay no mind to the other teams.

"So what brings this displeasure?" Alejandro asked.

"I'm just here to see if this team can fight off one of our own, but if it turns out they can then the Australian team will win. We got a little girl who spends more time cuddling than training and a boy who can't so much stay active around birds," Rex explained.

The battle roulette spun around declaring the type of battle. Star began crossing her fingers for a 2 out of three battle only for it to be declared a triple battle which caused her to slap her head with her own hand and think to herself, _"Just our luck."_

The emcee took the stage and started the battle welcoming the two teams where the Japanese teams took the stage and met again their opponents from a few days ago. The three of them all had blond hair and were about as tall as Chase. To be more specific it was more like they were identical triplets.

"Begin!" the ref declared which the teams reacted to by throwing their PokéBalls.

The three brothers all sent out their Pokémon as Staraptor, a male Unfezant, and Pidgeot. After Gijo saw the Pokémon and threw his own PokéBall he instantly froze up and fell to his knees where he lost almost all his emotion in his eyes. The three on the Australian team looked and laughed at how easily fell out of fear.

"Oy, mate, how about leaving the stage and save yourself the embarrassment!" he shouted towards Gijo.

Gijo breathed harshly as Brittany and Star shot cruel looks at the Australian team.

"No one does to our friend and gets away with it!" Star said.

"Get ready for some hurt, nya!" Brittany shouted at them.

Rex and Alejandro looked expectantly at Star and smiled to each other.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Rex asked.

"It's a distinct possibility that these kinds of catalyst are the best way to induce Star's powers," Alejandro said. "And having a special connection to Gijo is the best way to focus the mind of someone like Brittany."

"Liepard, Night Slash! Clip those featherbrains!" Brittany said.

The feline Pokémon charged the Staraptor and tried to reach but couldn't by the sheer altitude attained by the bird Pokémon.

"Staraptor go into an Aerial Ace attack!" the first brother said.

The Staraptor made a sharp turn around and tackled Liepard head on with precision. The other bird Pokémon followed the first example and nearly pummeled Liepard into the ground had it not broken away.

"Lucario, Aura sphere!" Star ordered as her eyes dilated and focused simply on the Pokémon in front of her.

Lucario shot the Aura Sphere towards Unfezant and it tried to dodge only for it to follow him and make a direct hit against it causing a mid-air explosion. The bird Pokémon began to fall to the ground when the Pidgeot caught in mid air and held it up without so much as a hint of strain.

"Unfezant, Roost!" the second brother called out.

The Pokémon began glowing in the sky and healed all of its injuries in record time without flicking a wing.

"Now, Lucario, Force Palm!" Star called out as her Pokémon jumped into the air and pushed its palm against Unfezant pushing both it and Pidgeot to the ground. Getting back up Unfezant used Roost again to heal itself.

"What just happened here?" Szac asked.

"Roost is a strange attack that heals the Pokémon that uses it," Chase explained. "But since it can only be used by flying type Pokémon it temporarily erases any genetics that make it a flying Pokémon."

"So since it was all normal at that point…" Szac began.

"…the damage done to it was double what it would normally have been," Chase finished.

Gijo was still shuddering on the arena with Galvantula still in a state of paralysis like Gijo said he would be. As a feather floated by him his eyes dilated all the more and he fainted. The ref looked at the Japanese team and they said that they would continue.

"Liepard, Dark Pulse!" Brittany called out to her Pokémon.

Liepard jumped in the air and bent over and straightened out to release a large pulsation of shadows at any of the Pokémon caught. Lucario ducked and the two Pokémon on the ground were affected and the one in the sky was affected equally.

"Ha!" Brittany shouted to them as the entire team continued to laugh and chuckle with confidence.

"You think that load of trash can stop us, shiela? All right brothers; let's show them how we can really fight off these no talents!" the first one said to the other two.

"Right!" the other two said in unison.

"Delta Formation!" the three said as all three birds took to the sky and stayed in a triangle formation with the Staraptor leading the way.

"Now! Aerial Ace!" all three said.

Staraptor took the first attack and flew right past Liepard and Lucario and smirked as the other two hit them dead-on launching them back to the wall. The three then kept using the same tactic and continually attacking and causing enough contact for sound that Gijo woke up still in daze and found Galvantula being completely ignored and then his partners' Pokémon being continually battered.

"Stop it…" he said quietly.

The battering continued at high speed with the three brothers keeping straight faces with confident smiles.

"I said stop it…" Gijo said slightly louder.

The three birds had almost finished the other two Pokémon off and got into position and then all dove down all at once and prepared to defeat the other two Pokémon.

"I said to STOP IT!" Gijo yelled. "Galvantula, Thunderbolt!"

Galvantula snapped out of his trance and shot a continuous stream lightning hitting Staraptor head-on. The other two birds stopped and turned to face Galvantula and attacked him with the other two brothers staring at Gijo with anger in their eyes as the Staraptor was declared unable to battle and was returned to the first brother who looked at Gijo whose eyes were more alive than ever before.

"Wait, you two!" he warned. "Back off!"

Before they could figure out what he meant the Unfezant and Pidgeot were locked in a battle with Galvantula with Gijo smiling as though he just had a revelation.

"Girls get your Pokémon to a safe distance from Galvantula; I don't want either of your Pokémon hurt in this," he said with a confident smile on his face.

"Got it!" the two said unison.

"Galvantula, you've got the green light. Attack, Discharge!" Gijo called out.

Galvantula pushed Pidgeot and Unfezant and sent out a large fury of negatively charged sparks which continually attacked the two flying Pokémon from all angles leaving no room for escape eventually resulting with both of them fainting on the spot. Gijo panted after the dust settled and looked over at the other team.

"How?" the first brother asked.

Gijo bowed to the three of them, "Because as much as I fear birds it could never amount to the fear of being powerless. That fear overpowers the fear of a type of Pokémon. When I saw my teammates being pressured like that my sense duty overpowered my sense of fear."

Rex left the stadium and smiled down at Star and the rest of her team and left the stadium leaving Alejandro to do nothing but smile.

Back on the stadium Star and Brittany both hugged Gijo out of happiness for both their win and his heroism which led Gijo to look off in this distance and thinka small prayer for someone.

_"Andrew, if you don't come back it's possible that you may not be missed after all. As a friend i don't want that, all i want for you is to be the very best. To be the true hero is many things one of them is not a quitter. Come back safe..."_

* * *

Chapter 13 complete. Sorry for my late updates, my computers been a little loopy lately and I couldn't find time, what can I say my dad's a workaholic?

Next time; when conflicting viewpoints lead to the supposed end of a team they're going to have to find their chemistry or this may be the year that the host country is shamed from the tournament. Next time; Confliction and Disgrace; England v. China.


	14. Chapter 14

Here's chapter fourteen of my Pokémon fanfic. As the tournament reaches the end of the first round the host country, England, faces against one of the oldest empires and the oldest training methods at the same time trying to keep their bond together when conflicting views may lead to their downfall.

**DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NO CONNECTIONS TO POKEMON HOWEVER MUCH I LIKE TO THINK I DO. PLEASE DON'T REPORT ME FOR A SUIT FILE.**

* * *

International Tournament File 014: Confliction and Disgrace; Britain v. China

As the first week of the tournament began to draw to a close with the host country, England, going up against the previous host country, the team from China. With having all the pressure on them to win Iain became more and more determined in his training with Jon and Ashley being a little less than determined, instead stayed more worried about the whereabouts of Andrew.

Given he'd been gone for nearly an entire week made the rest of the hotel worried, even more than before with even Alejandro and Gijo starting to worry. Chase and Iain on the other hand stayed as confident in him as they always had.

Three hours before the match Iain called the other two down to find them to still be half asleep.

"Alright you two slackers, I'm pretty sure those last five hours of sleep were well used," Iain said walking back and forth like a drill sergeant.

"Hey, Iain, ever hear of the concept of eight hours of sleep is the average for a human being?" Jon asked struggling to keep his eyes open.

"Yes, but as the host country we have to prove ourselves to the world," he said.

Ashley yawning looked at Iain, "Really, it's just another battle, nothing more."

Iain continuing to pace the area outside turned to his teammates and saw them about to go back to sleep. Snickering to himself he snapped his fingers resulting Garchomp pushing a large gong across the courtyard from the hotel. Giving Iain the mallet Garchomp backed off into the distance. Iain firmed his grip and swung the mallet making a large sound from the gong loud enough to wake up the Chinese team resulting in them throwing miscellaneous items at Iain which he dodged expertly.

"Shut up down there!" one of them said from behind a hooded cloak.

"You first!" Iain yelled back for the person in question to become speechless. "Heh."

Iain looked over at the other two and found them still asleep.

"Like this is going to help us in the battle," he said looking at the two still sleeping.

"Hey, on your feet!" he called out like a drill sergeant causing a reflex for the other two to stand at attention.

Chuckling to himself Iain walked away only for Jon to have Krookodile flick some of the dirt at him. Turning around the two locked heads and began to push up against one another to see who could stay standing longest.

"What was that for anyway, Jon?" Iain asked rather angry at his teammate.

"For being the worst team leader in the history of bad team leaders…and I have that history file for reference. Surprisingly the number seemed to be your grandfa-" Jon explained and was cut off by Iain's fist being pressed against his fist.

Falling over Jon looked up to find Iain standing there with rage in his eyes, "No one talks to me about my grandfather, especially you, you hear me?" he asked with a voice of rage.

"Fine, but I still say you're the worst team leader ever," Jon said walking away.

"You can say what you want, but it changes nothing," Iain said walking the other way.

Ashley left alone began looking both ways and found herself crying as to what to do next.

"_Why do they always have to fight about that person? So what if Iain's grandfather was a convicted felon? Haven't we been so tolerant of people like that? People like Iain's grandfather and Andrew? What are we going to do?"_ Ashley thought to herself.

At the stadium Jon and Iain still weren't on speaking terms and on opposite sides of a spectrum when it came on what made a good leader. Ashley was still depressed over the fight this morning. As the referee told them to please come out the entire audience noticed the separation between the team and the close chemistry found by the Chinese team even with them hiding behind hooded cloaks.

Chase, in the stands, shook his head in disapproval.

"This match is over before it even begins," he declared getting the attention from the other teams.

"And you know this how?" Rei asked.

"They have no team work between each other. Which, normally, would be fine if this were one-on-one but given that the emcee declared this as a triple battle like what happened to Gijo the problem isn't going to be just one person's inability to battle efficiently but the entire team's ability," Chase explained.

"How is that a problem? If they can just focus on one Pokémon each then they should be fine," Daisy said from the other side of Chase.

"Not so. The Chinese team prides themselves on using a special training method that specializes on teamwork and using the enemy's strength against them," Chase explained. "They each use an evolved form of the Pokémon Tyrouge; Hitmonchan, Hitmonlee, and Hitmontop. They use the power the Pokémon lacks by filling it in with the other Pokémon so it works in cycle and doesn't stop. And with tactics like that it's plain to see that that's why the Chinese Team is currently world champions."

"World champions!" the two of them said in unison.

"Unfortunately for those three, it's going to take every tactic that they can think of that uses team work to beat these troublesome fighters," Chase said solemnly.

The referee began the battle by raising both his flags. Iain ordered Garchomp to charge in without thinking and it charged for a Dragon Claw attack almost instantly. Moving in on close to Hitmonchan giving it no chance to evade. Instead of bracing itself Hitmonchan moved one step back giving enough for Hitmontop who spun around and blocked the Dragon Claw attack effortlessly. Iain staying near clueless the Hitmonchan reached over Hitmontop's head and hit Garchomp in the stomach with an Ice Punch and launching Garchomp back to the edge of the battlefield but still active.

"Well, that worked," Jon said sarcastically.

"Yeah, well let's see you do better," Iain said practically challenging Jon.

"Fine, I will. Krookodile, do you stuff!" he called out.

Krookodile did the same as Garchomp but ducked underneath Hitmonchan and attacked from underneath receiving no reaction from the trainers. Hitmonchan was launched into the air and pointed its body down and engulfed its fist with a Fire Punch and dove down towards Krookodile at break neck speed…among other things. Dodging just barely Krookodile was about to use a Brick Break when Hitmonlee appeared behind it and kicked Krookodile to the other side of the battlefield. Krookodile, still active, charged Hitmonlee only to run into Garchomp who tried to get to Hitmontop.

After this continued the two Pokémon began fighting amongst each other and seemed to be more enemies to each other than friends. Looking at the two of them fighting and sighed out of disappointment.

"This is more pathetic then I thought it would be," Chase said.

"Why? What did you think it was going to be like?" Rei asked.

"Just before the match Ashley talked to me about the team's current chemistry…" he said going into a flashback.

"_Chase! I need your help!" Ashley said catching up to Chase who had just returned from a walk._

"_Anything I can help you with, Ashley?" Chase asked._

"_It's the other two members of my team; they had a huge fight and now aren't speaking to each other and I figured you'd be able to help. I'd ask Alejandro, but last time someone interrupted his meditation he got ticked off at them and that's the last thing I need," Ashley explained._

"_So you want to know how to get them to make up and best friends again?" Chase asked trying to understand the situation._

"_They were never friends," Ashley corrected. "I just need to know how to get them back on speaking terms with each other again."_

"_First, tell me why they've always been at each other's throats," Chase requested. "That way we can figure out the proverbial loose end to tie."_

"_They've been at odds since birth. It's how they were raised; Iain comes from a very wealthy family, but that's only his father's generations. His grandfather used to be a notorious cat burglar who could open any safe imaginable until he met his match with Jon's grandfather, who was the head detective on the force at the time," Ashley explained. "All their lives they've been told that they've had to be enemies for who they were related to. It should also be known that at the same time when Iain was six his parents never enforced that rule since they were never around."_

"_So what I'm getting from this is that one wants to be friends whereas the other couldn't care less?" Chase guessed with a sly smile on his face._

"_Pretty much; Iain has tried to patch things up with the family, but that hatred is hardwired into Jon's brain. So he and Iain will never get along well no matter how hard I try," Ashley said with tears starting to form._

"_Where do you come into the picture here?"_

"_Huh?"_

"_Well, if you know so much about their history's obviously you were involved somehow in all this mess," Chase reasoned._

"_Yeah, I play the mediator between the two being close friends and trying to keep a steady friendship with both of them has been the toughest thing in my life thus far," Ashley admitted._

"_Then it's you," Chase said._

"_What?"_

"_You're what's known as a catalyst. The final ingredient to make something work slightly faster and more efficiently to make a reaction. I can't do anything to help your friends, but the only chance for them to make up is if you take your roles as the catalyst in this messed up science experiment that you guys call a friendship," Chase explained. "Good luck," he said saluting her and taking off._

Back to the issue at hand Chase, still remembering vividly in his head, what he had talked about with Ashley looked down at the field and began thinking a small reminder.

"_Come on Ashley; take your role as the catalyst!"_

As Iain and Jon as well as their two Pokémon were fighting Ashley looked up and banged their heads together and had her Samurott do the same to the two Pokémon. Bending over to meet them eye-to-eye Ashley gave them a cruel stare.

"Now look here. If you don't shape up, I'm taking over as the leader!" she yelled at them and picked them up and put them on their feet. "Alright, you two," she yelled out to the other two Pokémon. "If you guys want to win you're gonna hafta listen to what I say to your trainers, or else!" she said with an evil look on her face making the other two Pokémon cringe in fear.

"Now both of you make up," Ashley ordered to her two teammates. "Who honestly cares who's related to whom? I get that you two are related to two people who were opposite ends of a spectrum and you were taught to hate each other, but that just means you have to work that much harder to move past all of it."

Iain and Jon thought for several seconds on what she said and looked at each other when Jon offered his hand. Iain chuckled and took it into a handshake.

"You're quite a girl, Ashley," Iain said. "To think you, a nonparticipant would get a feud between two families to end with only a sequence of simply words."

"He's right," Jon admitted. "Now that I think about it if it wasn't for you we would have no chance of getting this far. Let's do this!"

"Yeah!" the three said in unison.

"_Good job, Ashley!" _Chase thought.

"Alright, Krookodile takes them from the right and stays there, same thing for Garchomp but on the left. Samurott will take the center. Whatever you do, no matter how bad it looks don't try to help anyone else but yourself. Remember being on a team is about helping one another, but also about trust in one another," Ashley said. "Alright guys, let's do this!"

Just as she had instructed the three Pokémon attacked from different angles confusing the team in front of them. Hitmontop began spinning at full force at Garchomp who sent it flying off with a perfectly angled Dragon Claw like a helicopter to the side of the stage, Hitmonlee caught off guard by the flying Hitmontop so much so that it didn't notice the Brick Break going for its stomach. Hitmonchan left as the only one standing looked back at its owners who had now taken off their hoods and revealed themselves as three young women that looked almost identical.

"This can't be possible; our Pokémon are trained for these maneuvers," they all said at once.

"Well, I guess you didn't hear," Iain declared. "There's a new team in town; Team Britain led by the one and only…Ashley!"

Ashley looked at him approvingly and made a slashing movement as though using a sword.

"Samurott, Razor Shell!" she commanded as the large Pokémon unsheathed one of its swords and charged Hitmonchan.

Hitmonchan charged up a Thunder Punch and jabbed just as Samurott made the connection with its sword. The two waited as the wind floated by until they both fell. Both had fainted and were declared that way making Britain the winners of the whole kit and caboodle. Shaking the hands of the previous hosts Iain and Jon both apologized for their rude behavior. Ashley looked up at Chase who saluted her again and she did the same.

Chase left the stadium and looked up at the sky.

"_Andrew if you don't come back then you'll have missed out on more than you can ever know…"_

On top of the remote island Andrew and Ferrothorn panted as they both collapsed in a heap on top of the snowcapped peak.

"We're not…done yet!" he yelled finally and looked down that mountain with his jacket tattered at the bottom and his Ferrothorn looking even more powerful. "And I will be back! Don't leave me forever!"

"_Bouffalant…"_

* * *

Chapter 14 complete. I gotta say even I'm getting interested into this just by reading it let alone writing it. So what has Andrew been doing on the mountain, what's going to happen if he doesn't return before the American Team's next battle?

Next time; Andrew returns to find everyone different, including himself. And after meeting a familiar person from his past Chase has the choice to join them or stay with his team. Will Andrew even care anymore, and how does this affect Szac? Next time; Andrew Returns, or Does He? USA v. Canada.


	15. Chapter 15

Here's chapter fifteen of my Pokémon song fanfic. After a week of being in the mountains Andrew is coming back, but how much has he changed and how much has his resolve to get back his friend changed how he feels about the others?

**DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NO CONNECTIONS TO POKEMON HOWEVER MUCH I LIKE TO THINK I DO. PLEASE DON'T REPORT ME FOR A SUIT FILE.**

International Tournament File 015: Andrew's Back, or Is He? USA v. Canada

* * *

Dusk…the hotel began to shine in the lightning flashes. In the basement area two people were battling against a single person hidden in the shadows. Both of their Pokémon, a Weavile and Glaceon, were battling a single shadow-clad Pokémon and seemed to be doing nothing even when striking it. The figure moved his hand as in ordering the Pokémon that shot out a tentacle that struck both of the Pokémon knocking them out and knocking them into their trainers knocking them out as well. Walking out of the shadows the figure was revealed to be Andrew who looked at the two incapacitated trainers.

"I can see why you left, Chase," he said. "They truly are pathetic."

Leaving the hotel Andrew looked back at the hotel and grinned evilly and looked back at the hotel he had been staying at. Looking at the sky he pushed a power button on a transceiver and began to speak into it.

"Has the data been transferred, Gengar?" he asked as a large ghost Pokémon holding a small satellite dish came down to the ground.

Bearing a smile that matched Andrew's grin Gengar nodded and returned itself into Andrew's PokéBall. Ferrothorn joined Andrew from inside the hotel and the two made their way back to the hotel they had been staying in previous to their disappearance.

Back at the hotel the lightning crashed forcing everyone into hiding in each of their rooms, and in some cases under their beds. Chase, now the last person not worried about Andrew, was sitting in the lobby drinking a cup of tea and looking out at the lightning storm. The doors opened and Chase saw his Luxray walk in and shake his head negatively.

"So there really is no word as to where he might be, is there?" Chase asked.

Sighing heavily Chase returned his Pokémon and made his way back up to his room when he saw a figure approach the door with a Pokémon floating right next to him. Chase looking relieved saw Andrew walk in as though he was unshaken by the lightning crashing down as though sent by the Pokémon Zapdos itself.

"So what does it take to get a room in this place?" Andrew asked sarcastically as he and Chase both high-fived each other. "I really have missed you, Chase," he admitted.

"Likewise," Chase said shaking his hand.

As the two began to walk up the stairwell a young girl ran into the hotel and seemed out of breath. The girl's hair, reaching down to the middle of her back in a ponytail and the bangs clipped to go to the left, was sopping wet as she walked in with a yellow sweater and blue jean shorts. Her large boots kept her feet from being completely drenched which is more than one can say about her legs, given the shorts.

"Chase, get him!" she said pointing at Andrew. "And hurry up about it!"

"Cammie?" he asked in surprise.

"Friend of yours, Chase?" Andrew asked.

"You could say that; her adoptive family lived a few blocks down from my own. When we were younger the two of us would regularly battle…most of which I won," Chase explained putting emphasis on that last part.

"That's beside the point, Chase. Now get him!" Cammie said pointing back at Andrew.

Walking towards him she stepped on some excess water and tripped on the ground. A bead of sweat dropped from both Andrew's and Chase's heads as she got back up.

"And here I though those boots were supposed to give you a better grip when you're walking on water," Andrew said.

"Nah, she's just overly clumsy," Chase explained.

Cammie got back and pointed back at Andrew accusingly.

"This guy just incapacitated my entire team with his Pokémon!" she declared.

Chase looked at Andrew inquisitively and tapped his foot.

"It does sound like something I would do, but where's your proof," Andrew admitted as Cammie looked surprised. "You're just spouting out accusations with no hard evidence, so I'm not convinced."

Chase looked back over at Cammie, "He's got a point. Without proof you're just crazy lady making unfounded accusations."

Cammie chuckled and shuffled through her pocket, "How this for proof?" she said showing the two of them a set of pictures. "These are pictures of the marks made on the Pokémon, vine whip-marks made from a grass Pokémon, like your Ferrothorn!" she declared pointing at the Pokémon floating behind him.

"If that's the case, Cammie, wouldn't my Ferrothorn have bruises from a struggle on its vines?" Andrew asked showing his Ferrothorn's vines to be unmarked of any struggle.

Cammie seemed crushed as she looked at Ferrothorn with no marks on his vines and dropped her jaw. Cammie seemed to be crushed all the more and began to leave to fin the storm turning into a torrential downpour. Just before leaving Chase placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Cammie, why don't you stay here for the night? That way you don't catch something like pneumonia or anything and you can keep an eye on Andrew that way," Chase suggested.

"Don't bring me into this," Andrew said leaving for his room.

Chase watched him leave then focused his eyes on something. Cammie walked up with Chase up to a room that was being shared by someone already, but he didn't think they would mind.

"Hey, Brittany, Rei, I'm coming in. Everything okay?" Chase asked knocking on the door.

"Hoe?" Brittany said from behind the door. "Sure come on in, nya!"

Snapping Chase's eyes went into an evil look as he came in.

"What've I told you about saying that around me!" he asked as Brittany was still hiding under her bed.

Chuckling slightly Chase sent out Luxray who was still electrically charged from a previous bolt of lightning, "If you're so afraid of lightning why don't I apply some therapy in which you're forced to face your fear?" he asked with an evil grin.

"Hoe?" Brittany said from under her bed as Chase gave the order and Luxray charged his electricity.

Brittany ran from under the bed and joined Rei in hiding in the closet. Rei stepped out top find Chase and stepped.

"Well, Chase now you're reduced yourself to scaring little kids with lightning?" Rei said accusingly and then just noticing Cammie standing behind Chase. "And who might you be?"

Snapping out of his rage Chase remembered why he was here in the first place, "Yes, Rei this is Cammie; we're letting her stay the night because of the storm, and I was wondering if you wouldn't mind…"

"Say no more!" Rei said. "We'd be glad to keep her here. By the way I heard you guys downstairs; it sounds like Andrew came back finally," Rei said.

"Yes, but that's also why Cammie is here. She's accused him of attacking the two guys in her team so she also wants to keep an eye on him," Chase explained. "Well, goodnight you guys."

Getting settled in Cammie combed her hair and noticed a small diary on the cupboard. About to open it Brittany intercepted it and closed it and hid it under her bed.

"I'm sorry, but I couldn't help but notice that first page," Cammie said bowing knowing that Brittany was from Japan.

"Hoe?" Brittany asked simply knowing that on the first page of her diary was all about Gijo.

Before she could talk about Cammie's mouth was shut by Brittany who looked over to make sure Rei didn't hear. Sighing out of relief Brittany went back to her bed to find Rei bent over and looking her with a sly look.

"So what's on the first page?" she asked.

"Nothing, nya…" Brittany said with a nervous chuckle.

"More importantly," Rei said. "Why don't you tell us about yourself, Cammie?"

"Okay, I guess," Cammie said sitting down. "I was adopted at birth so I never met my biological parents. When I was about six years old I was given my Pokémon Eevee, and Chase and I would battle almost every day each time getting stronger and better. Chase left the area to Ontario when we were about twelve. I hadn't seen him for a while until I noticed that his name was on a letter given to me that listed him and me for this tournament on the Canadian team."

"Wait, you two were supposed to be on the same team?" Rei asked.

"Yes, but after a while I hadn't seen him I thought he didn't care anymore about winning the title of one of the best battlers in the world," Cammie explained. "That is until I saw him on the American team and with that lowlife, Andrew."

"We've all found Andrew to be a nice guy. I mean he saved one of us from a pack of Seviper. I mean, yeah, he's strange but he hasn't done anything to us," Rei explained.

"You ever hear of a ruse, he's just waiting to strike his revenge on the society that's rejected for having more than one Pokémon," Cammie said like a conspiracy theorist.

"Andrew-kun has been more passionate about his opinions, nya. But that doesn't mean he'd do anything to us, right?" she asked looking at Rei.

"I trust everyone in here, and that won't change," Rei declared going to bed.

Over in Szac's room Chase placed something in both Szac's and Mightyena's ear.

"_I'm sorry, Andrew. But I have to know!"_

Fireworks at the stadium signaled the start of a new round for the tournament as it was declared the USA team and Canadian team. More than a little nervous on the outcome Brittany and Rei both cringed because of the situation with the Canadian team.

In the waiting rooms Szac paced the floor and looked back at Andrew who was calm as can be.

"Where's Chase? He's the one who wanted us to be early," Szac remembered that Chase told them to go on early.

"Don't worry, kid. He'll be on that battlefield," Andrew said patting his head. _"The question is where?"_

On the battlefield Szac and Andrew stepped out to a field cheering for Szac and booing Andrew and even throwing things at him. Unfazed by this Andrew took his mark on stage and looked at the area for the other team to come out from. As Cammie took the stage she made the way for another figure approaching the field on the Canadian side of the field. Szac shouted with surprise as he saw his friend about to fight him.

"Why are you over there, Chase?" he asked.

"Chase's ethnicity is that of Canadian blood…" Andrew explained. "After the incident with whatever happened with the Canadian team Chase took it upon himself to fill the gap and even the odds."

The referee started the battle and the four Pokémon were sent out. Andrew and Szac sent out Mightyena and Ferrothorn while Chase and Cammie sent out Luxray and Cammie's Pokémon revealed to be an Umbreon. The battle began with Chase shooting out a quick Thunderbolt towards Mightyena. Unable to dodge it Mightyena braced itself when Ferrothorn moved in its way and Andrew said under his breath, "Protect." Producing a shield Ferrothorn blocked the entire attack. Chase's demeanor was that of focus as opposed to his usual cheerful self when he battled.

Cammie then attacked with a Faint Attack and charged Mightyena who, instructed by Szac, did the same. The two collided and jumped back leaving Luxray to fight Ferrothorn.

"Luxray, Fire Fang!" Chase ordered.

Luxray began to heat up its internal body temperature and then focused all of it to his mouth and then charged Ferrothorn and then bit onto one of its vines. Chase and Andrew kept solemn faces as they looked at each other. Andrew snapped his fingers and following that Ferrothorn, feeling no pain at all, flung its vine throwing Luxray to the ground.

"What have you been doing all this time?" Chase asked as the battle stalled for an answer.

"I've been on top of a mountain training Ferrothorn so that I don't have to lose anymore," Andrew admitted. "After those girls on the Russian team tricked me into using Explosion I promised myself that even in using Explosion I wouldn't lose. I taught him to fight through pain like I had and even after all that we trained for hours in that last week just on physical training. Until last night when I was finished with everything I needed to know to make this Pokémon the best I can."

"You're a sick man, you know that?" Chase said. "To think you'd put your Pokémon through all that without even a thought of its feelings."

"You're right. I've neglected the feelings of a Pokémon, in my past. When I first got Ferrothorn I called it weak and not worth the time. Being called weak is far worse than losing while still trying so don't you lecture me about not knowing what a Pokémon wants!" Andrew said starting to lose his temper.

"I have one more question for you, Andrew," Chase said. "Did you attack those two men on the Canadian team?"

"…I did," Andrew admitted. "I knew about your connection to the Canadian team from the first time I saw your ID and thought I could use that to my advantage to battle you again and it looks like it's worked out to perfection."

"Those people are…" Chase began saying but was cut-off.

"…are fine," Andrew finished. "I went by earlier and checked with the hospital to make sure they were stable. They're healthy as Horsea, and with enough head trauma they don't remember me. Everybody wins," Andrew explained. "And don't tell me this isn't exactly what you wanted; another crack at me because of our little draw?"

"I did," Chase said. "But now I don't know who you are!"

"Good, because neither do I…" Andrew said. "Ferrothorn, Power Whip!

Ferrothorn charged power in its vine and charged towards Luxray who was ready to take the attack but was blocked by Umbreon who was launched back several feet to the edge of the battlefield as the vine struck it across the body. Umbreon stood back and faced Mightyena who seemed petrified as was his trainer.

"Why, Andrew?" Szac asked. "Is it all for revenge against someone?"

"No, Szac," Andrew answered. "It goes much deeper than what you're thinking. I wanted to battle Chase one more time before I left the tournament. Unfortunately, Bouffalant isn't at this place so it's time to move on."

Chase kept his head pointed towards Andrew and looked at his belt. Sighing heavily he shook his head and looked back at Szac.

"I'm sorry Szac, but now is the most opportune time!" Chase said pushing a small button activating a transceiver in both his and Mightyena's ear.

Szac reacted to it as though he had a headache holding his head and turning into his feral persona. Mightyena reacting the same way turned to Andrew and growled as Szac walked over to the other side of the field and simply turned to Andrew with small tears in his eyes.

"I trusted you," he said walking to the other side.

"Then I guess now you know better," Andrew said. "What did you do to him, Chase?"

Chase looked at Szac and turned to Andrew, "I simply placed a small transceiver in his ear that when activated increases stress on the brain resorting Szac to turn into his feral persona. While in a domestic mode Szac wouldn't betray you or anything that could hurt you at all, but while in feral mode Szac's emotions run wild and he can't help but let them come to the surface. If you want to quit now I would understand, but really…" Chase explained and began to speak but was cut-off again.

"…but really how would that be anything like me?" Andrew finished. "Three to one, huh? I like those odds. Ferrothorn, use a power whip with all three tentacles, let's go!"

Ferrothorn nodded and charged power in all three tentacles and floated quickly into the middle and spun around to the point where it looked like a giant top.

"Add a little Gyro Ball why don't you?" Andrew said.

Now charging power Ferrothorn began floating forward to attack all three Pokémon. Dodging most of the attacks the three Pokémon, Luxray, Umbreon, and Mightyena, started to make attacks of their own that were continually brushed off by the centrifugal force from the Gyro ball. Now moving faster than before Ferrothorn began hitting the three Pokémon and launching them skyward. Landing on their feet the three Pokémon watched as the Ferrothorn stopped spinning.

"Well, it's been fun, but not even the great master of the universe, Chase, can escape from this tactic; Ferrothorn, Explosion!" Andrew called out.

Charging power inside of its body Ferrothorn let out an explosion big enough to level a forest. As the dust cleared all four Pokémon were knocked out and Andrew was already walking away after returning it to the ball. Before reaching the end of the stadium a stream of fire stopped him and he turned around to find the stadium cleared of Pokémon except for a lone Blaziken. Chase was still in his battle stance and Andrew just chuckled.

"So it looks like I'm not the only felon here," he said. "Now why would you do that?"

"Because I know you have another Pokémon. The PokéBall you normally have strapped to your bag is on your belt. And I saw you talking to something last night while Ferrothorn was behind you. What you were talking to I'd like to know right now. Battle me, one on one!" Chase shouted.

Chuckling again Andrew grabbed his PokéBall and threw it and sent out the Gengar he had recently been shown to have. The two faced each other and began their battle.

"Gengar, Shadow Punch!" Andrew commanded.

"Blaziken, Fire Punch!" Chase commanded in kind.

With both fists engulfed in their respective elements the two were battling in what looked like a boxing match that ended when Blaziken struck Gengar on the side. Gengar jumping back placed its hands together and shot out a ball of shadows much like Lucario's Aura Sphere. Blaziken blocked all of them with its fist.

"It seems that this Blaziken is based only on its physical power. Let's see how you hand this; Psychic!"

Gengar's eyes glowed blue and, with its mind, picked up Blaziken and slammed it up and down. Continuing to do that Andrew returned Gengar and left the stage.

"Where do you think you're going?" Chase said tending to Blaziken.

"To find the missing pieces to the Odd Keystone," Andrew said not turning to face him.

Back in the hotel all the teams had assembled at Chase's request along with Rex and Cammie. Chase sat down and sighed heavily after everyone assembled. Given that everyone in the room has seen the match and that Chase had a second Pokémon.

"The truth of the matter is that Andrew had no interest in this tournament. He'd only been using to see if his friend was here, and after learning otherwise he found it high time to leave and move onto the next place," Chase explained. "The real problem is that while he's dodging the police with expertise he's going to be gathering pieces of a broken relic called the Odd Keystone; a small stone with markings that is said to be able to hold the Pokémon of 108 malevolent spirits; Spiritomb."

The entire attendance looked at him surprised.

"What would he need with Spiritomb?" Rex asked.

"The power to defeat almost any Pokémon as Spiritomb has no exact weakness and thus can ensure the recapture of Bouffalant," Alejandro explained.

"Exactly," Chase said. "Now, I've thought of a plan, but it requires that we all break the rules," he explained. "Since the tournament's been postponed for the capture of Andrew and his Pokémon we have the time so here's the plan; we're going to have to catch multiple Pokémon, and one of them has to be what can be called a Pokémon with legendary power. I have a list of Pokémon here that can be considered like that. One of them, we have already, Rex and his Hydreigon, but he'll need back-up, so in other words, we're going to travel the world from now and try to find the secrets of some of the rarest Pokémon in the world. That way when Andrew unleashes Spiritomb we can stop him. So who's in?" he asked putting his hand in the middle.

The entire attendance stayed quiet when Rex stepped up and put his hand on top Chase's, "I'm in!"

Gijo, Alejandro, Iain, and Jon all put their hands on the other two, "Count us in," Gijo said.

The rest of the trainers put their hands in the middle and all said that they were in.

Chase looked around but found Szac wasn't there, but instead found the door open.

"_I guess when in grief, all we need to be is alone…Good luck Szac; I hope you find your answer."_

"Alright everyone, this is how the groups will be; I'll go with Cammie, Gijo goes with Rex, Alejandro stay with Star, Ashley go with Daisy, Rei and Brittany, and Iain and Jon you'll go together," Chase explained the pairings. "Alright everyone, let's move out!"

All the trainers put their fists in the air and shouted, "YEAH!"

Down the road Szac was running and found himself at an old bench and park. Burying his hands in his face.

"_What have I done?"_ he thought. _"It's my fault for not trusting him fully when I should have. What am I gonna do, now?"_

About to cry a stranger put his hand on Szac's shoulder and looked at him.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"I'm a friend," he said.

Out on the coastline Andrew looked at the open ocean and nodded at Gengar who lifted both of them with Psychic. Looking back at the stadium which was visible from his vantage point tears started produce in his eyes.

"_I hope you all know, I had fun. And I'm truly sorry for lying to you all."_

* * *

Chapter fifteen complete. Well, that was interesting. The tournament may be over for now, but now the real contest begins now; who can get their teams ready before the other. But who is this stranger who meets with Szac, what is Andrew's first destination, and how do all these events have to do with the final outcome of the tournament.

Next time; the first pair goes off to Egypt to find the secret Pyramid of the Sun to find the first Pokémon. Meanwhile Szac and the stranger begin going through the lives of both Szac and Andrew alike before he decides to join in the search. Next time: Quest for the Sun and Quest for the Truth; Aaron Appears.


	16. Chapter 16

Here's chapter sixteen of my Pokémon song fanfic. To recap; after a short lived reunion with two of Chase's fiends, Andrew and Cammie, Andrew has shown his true colors and left to unleash the Forbidden Pokémon Spiritomb. Now on a worldwide trek the teams along with Rex and Cammie try to find and capture Pokémon that have the same power level as Spiritomb.

**DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NO CONNECTIONS TO POKEMON HOWEVER MUCH I LIKE TO THINK I DO. PLEASE DON'T REPORT ME FOR A SUIT FILE.**

* * *

International Tournament 016: Quest for the Sun, Quest for the Truth; Aaron Appears

Down the road Szac was running and found himself at an old bench and park. Burying his hands in his face looking back at what he said to Andrew.

"_What have I done?"_ he thought. _"It's my fault for not trusting him fully when I should have. What am I gonna do, now?"_

About to cry a stranger put his hand on Szac's shoulder and looked at him.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"I'm a friend," he said.

The boy looked only a few years older than Szac with a red jacket, black t-shirt, green sweatpants, a Sherpa hat covering his dark brown hair. Behind a large Pokémon, Cryogonal, floated in the air making Szac remember the Ferrothorn that floated the same way.

"What do you want with me?" Szac asked looking away.

"I want to help you with your problem with Andrew," he said.

"What do you know about me and Andrew?" Szac asked. "Better yet, who are you?"

"My name is Aaron, from the Southeast Asia team. The fact of the matter after is what happened with Andrew you began to blame yourself for what happened and I think you're going to do the same until this whole thing has been resolved, am I right?" Aaron asked.

"What can you possibly know about either of us went through?" Szac asked. "And how could you know what I feel?"

"I normally make it my business to know how people feel," Aaron said. "Call it a major in psychology."

The two looked at each other and Aaron offered his hand to Szac who just cast it away.

"How can you help me?" Szac asked unconvinced.

"One battle," Aaron said. "Battle me and Cryogonal, and I'll have helped you more than you know."

Szac looked at Aaron's face and then for a split-second saw Andrew in it. Recoiling back Szac drew his PokéBall and threw it sending out Mightyena showing he had accepted the battle. Aaron stretched his arm and Cryogonal slowly floated to the center of the agreed area and they started.

Meanwhile, traveling on the ocean Rex and Gijo were traveling over miles of sky to Japan by Gijo's request. Landing in Osaka, Gijo ran over to his house with Rex following behind. Inside Gijo disregarded everything and found a separate room where he found what he was looking for. An empty PokéBall was found on a table in the adjoining room causing Gijo to have a sarcastic look on his face.

"Golem! Get out her now!" Gijo yelled out.

The large rock Pokémon rolled in form another room and instantly recognizing Gijo's face jumped up and attempted to hug him. Out of reaction for safety Gijo dodged which is more than one can say for Rex who got caught in the crossfire. After lingering for a few seconds underneath the six hundred pound rock Golem rolled off and stood up.

Still gasping for air Rex turned to Gijo, "H-how l-long h-have you had this behemoth?"

"A couple of weeks before Star and I left for the tournament," Gijo answered.

"So what good is he going to do?" Rex asked looking at the Pokémon that his Hydreigon probably couldn't carry.

"From what Chase said the Pokémon are in all types and all over the world. Don't tell me you forgot about your list," Gijo said holding a list of Pokémon names.

Upon further inspection of the list Rex read to himself each name on the list,

"_Dragonite"_

"_Rotom"_

"_Volcarona"_

"_Haxorus"_

"_Unown"_

"_Gyarados"_

"_Aerodactyl"_

"_Milotic"_

"_Castform"_

"_Salamence"_

"_Shedinja"_

"_Eelektross"_

"_Metagross"_

"_Wobbufett"_

"So why these Pokémon specifically?" Rex asked.

"Probably because of their overall powers and abilities," Gijo explained looking through his bookcase. "Each of the Pokémon on that list are both hard to get as well as being able to stand up to other Pokémon with similar powers and abilities."

Shuffling through his bookcase Gijo stopped on a book with hieroglyphics on the spine and was written in Japanese inside. Shuffling through the pages and then stopped on a certain one.

"What's that say?" Rex asked leaning over his shoulder.

"This is a book about the connections between the ancient Egyptians and their worshipping of Pokémon as their gods," Gijo answered. "The book talks about the Egyptian god Ra, or the sun god, and its connection to the Pokémon Volcarona, one of the Pokémon on that list. It says that whenever a solar eclipse would befall on the earth Volcarona would rise up into the sky and take its place until the eclipse was over. Now supposedly when a Volcarona would grow weary from its role as the sun god the people would monument huge pyramids to them as their resting areas until their time to shine, literally, would come again. Needless to say, many expeditions have been organized to find this Pyramid of the Sun, but no such pyramid has been found," Gijo explained. "My thinking is that the Pyramid of the Sun is somewhere in the Egyptian wilderness and deep in its walls is a Volcarona."

"Well it's certainly possible," Rex admitted. "So my next question is how in the heck are we going to comb the entire desert for something that may or may not exist?"

Gijo grinned and motioned to Golem. Golem crossed its arms to show off its power. Rex ginned the same way and motioned for Gijo to go back to Hydreigon who was still waiting outside. After returning Golem to its PokéBall the two made their way to Cairo in Egypt to begin what was sure to be an exhausting search.

Back in England Szac and Aaron had just started their battle. After gaining a crowd one of the referees from the tournament acted for this battle. Aaron took of his jacket and placed it on the ground and looked straight at Cryogonal.

"Go, Icy Wind!" Aaron called out.

Cryogonal reared its head back and then blew out a wide spread breeze capable of making a mini-blizzard. Mightyena holding its ground looked through the breeze and lowered its head to dodge the brunt of it. Szac looked at the scene and then closed his eyes and held his head as though having a headache.

"M-Mightyena, Crunch!" he said fighting through the headache.

Mightyena jumped through the snowballs made by Cryogonal and then jumped down to latch onto Cryogonal only for it dodge at the last second. Still cringing in pain Szac looked at Aaron who still had a warm smile on his face that didn't match his Pokémon's.

"What do you know about me, anyway?" Szac asked.

"No one in this world is the same; that much I know about you. But you are different on another scale; when you were much younger you were subjected to a kind of experiment that was supposed to enhance your instincts, but instead you were turned into, for want of a better term, a werewolf," Aaron said. "When you were accused of being a runaway you were arrested and were made the cellmate of Andrew, who broke you out in the course of the night. One thing led to another and you became part of the same team as him and now because of this feral persona you blame yourself for his turn back to his dark side."

"Dark side?" Szac asked.

"When Andrew was eleven he was abandoned for the want of seeing how he could make it on his own," Aaron explaining. "After which he became more and more unstable and began his own rebellion against the laws of the Pokémon Battle Council. Over time he was sent to prison where he began his real training to the point of breaking his bones and causing multiple scars by training his Pokémon against himself."

"So how are we connected?" Szac asked as the two Pokémon stalled the battle to listen to the answers Aaron was giving.

"That's the thing; like most people you all have the good and bad times. In both of your cases it's mostly been bad; you were both disowned by your parents for the want of research and understanding on something that was completely unfounded, you both found yourselves alone in the world without anyone to call themselves your friend, and you both became each other's friend. The thing that connects is not the obvious but it's the understanding between the two of you," Aaron explained. "No one else that you were staying with knows the pain of abandonment. Only you two can say that 'I was abandoned,' and say it knowing that what you've moved past is greater than most challenges than most will ever even come close to in their entire lives."

"So what do I do?" Szac asked looking at Mightyena.

"First you're going to have to realize that your feral persona is something that will never go away, and that it can be both your best friend and your worst enemy," Aaron explained.

Closing his eyes Szac searched through every memory with Andrew; being in jail and watching him train his Pokémon to get them out, coming to the hotel to find him and to watch him battle all the stronger than the last time, saving him from leaving the tournament so he could continue searching for his friend, and finally leaving him right before the tournament was postpones to find him and arrest him and the words he said to him that Andrew could only accept.

"You know something, Aaron?" Szac asked. "You're a real jerk. Looking back I had only good times with Andrew, but going back to that time when I told him I could never trust him again made me remember that I have to live with this curse called crossed DNA," Szac explained as tears formed in his eyes. "But you have more than a point when it comes to this; learning to live with this persona is the first step to learning to see both sides of an argument and how maybe Andrew's way of thinking is only bad in stereotyping."

"Oh no, you're mistaken, Szac. What Andrew does is wrong, and the only people who can stop him are his friends…all you guys," Aaron explained. "If you want to help you're going to have to find a Pokémon that has the powers and abilities that can rival that of Spiritomb."

"But where do I start?" Szac asked.

"First off, apologize to Chase and the rest of them and then join in the search," Aaron suggested. "After that, get your friend back!"

The two smiled and continued the battle ultimately ending in Aaron's loss after Mightyena continually attacked it with Fire Fang. Returning their Pokémon Szac headed back for the hotel room and encouraged Aaron to follow him. Taking the offer Aaron followed and found themselves at the hotel that was empty. Depressed Szac fell the ground out of disgrace for what he had done.

"What have I done?" Szac asked.

Seeing a note left on the table Aaron opened and placed it against Szac's cheek and gave it to him. Opening it he found it in Chase's handwriting and began reading it aloud.

"_To Szac, I know that in order to find the strength to stop a friend you need to know what that friend means to you. I have already forgiven you, as has everyone else in the hotel. The only thing is for you to sign your name next to one of the Pokémon on this list and that will tell me that you've decided to join us in our quest to stop him. Rei and Brittany are still in the area heading for France. I hope you know we all still want to be friends with Andrew but it's going to take all of us to stop him. Oh, and if you could bring a friend that would be great._

_From Chase, Gijo, Star, Brittany, Alejandro, Rei, Daisy, Iain, Ashley, Jon, Rex, and Cammie"_

Signing his name next to one of the Pokémon left open and then signing Aaron's name next to the last Pokémon that wasn't being sought after. The two shook hands and left for their next destination.

Flying over Cairo, Gijo and Rex looked over miles of open desert as Golem below began burrowing with a Rollout attack across the entire area without finding anything. After searching for hours the two of them returned their Pokémon and landed on the ground of the Cairo streets and walked around the marketplace.

"Can I interest you two young boys in a story?" an old man asked sitting next to a Xatu.

"Only if it has to do with the Pyramid of the Sun, old man," Rex said.

The old man's eyes widened and he just laughed, "I know all about that place. I've even been there, you know."

"Really?" the two asked excited.

"Yes and I'll tell you all about it…for a bit of money," the old man said as his Xatu held up a dish.

Each dropping a few coins the two listened intently to the old man's story.

"It was when I was a very young man, no older than you sir," he said pointing to Rex. "My partner Xatu and I had just completed rounds around town and had were exploring the desert. It was about six at night and I saw the sun burning brightly and saw something on the ground shining in the brilliant rays of the sun. Reaching down to get it we pulled it up to find it to a diamond. Holding it up to sky it magnified the sun's rays and shot towards to east. As I traveled thinking it was a treasure map I found myself at the Pyramid of Khufu. While there I looked around and found another diamond on the ground and held it up in the same way and saw a picture of the sun on the Khufu pyramid. Going towards the sun picture I found at the door and then inside. The two diamonds then magically fit into two notches in the wall and opened a small door that led me to a great tablet of a giant monster shining as bright as the sun, and it was flying over a broken relic."

"Then what?" Rex asked.

"Nothing, I left the tomb and never spoke of it to anyone except for you two and another traveler who came by here earlier," the old man said. "Then he paid me enough money to buy the same two diamonds."

"Out of curiosity, did this guy have black hair and seemed to have a nasty disposition with either a Ferrothorn or a Gengar following him?" Gijo asked.

"Now that you mention it he did have both of those Pokémon following him," the old man answered.

"Quick, where is the Pyramid of Khufu?" Rex asked in a hurry.

"About 18 kilometers southwest of here, why?" the old man asked.

"That guy is who we're looking for. Thanks for your information," Gijo answered.

Flying to the pyramid Gijo and Rex both looked down to find Andrew under a cloak floating with his Gengar's Psychic holding him up.

"This explains why nobody every found the darn thing," Gijo said. "Because they never erected a new pyramid but built a hidden cavern right in the already made Pyramid of Khufu."

"Exactly," Rex agreed. "And by building this cavern the Volcarona can have peace from their hard work, but they also guard a piece of the Odd Keystone that Andrew needs."

"We're going to have to beat him to it before he can get his hands on it!" Gijo said. "Golem! Give him some company!"

Throwing the ball down to Andrew Gijo and Rex continued to race against both time and their old friends to get to the hidden Pyramid of the Sun.

* * *

Chapter 16 complete. Whoo! Can you say, "Tired" in three languages? Because I can; tired, fatigué (French), and tsukareta (Japanese). And I'm sorry for this, but thank you for Cammie, be expecting a lot more of her when it's time to get the ball really rolling.

In the chapters to come I will be having the main characters catch more than one Pokémon. So if you could send me a list of Pokémon that you would like to use later on. Restrictions are legendaries, other Pokémon used by the main characters and Pokémon on the list above that Rex read off. For a recap on the Pokémon used by other people; Darmanitan, Ninetales, Monferno, Galvantula, Liepard, Lucario, Samurott, Garchomp, Krookodile, Mightyena, Ferrothorn, Gengar, Luxray, Blaziken, Hydreigon, Cryogonal, and Umbreon. Anything else that fits the parameters is fair game.

Next time; As the first team gets closer to the Volcarona they now have to beat Andrew from getting the first piece of the Odd Keystone hidden somewhere in the cavern known as the Pyramid of the Sun. Next time; The Light is Always Brighter; Catching Volcarona.


	17. Chapter 17

Here's chapter seventeen of my Pokémon song fanfic. To recap; now that the phase for stopping Andrew has been set into motion Gijo and Rex go to Egypt to try to find the Pokémon of the sun, Volcarona. While there Gijo and Rex find the location of the living area of the Volcarona, the Pyramid of the Sun, but find that Andrew is already on his way there. Can they beat him there or will they be too late to keep him from the first piece of the Odd Keystone.

**DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NO CONNECTIONS TO POKEMON HOWEVER MUCH I LIKE TO THINK I DO. PLEASE DON'T REPORT ME FOR A SUIT FILE.**

* * *

International Tournament File 017: The Light is Always Brighter; Catching Volcarona

Flying to the pyramid Gijo and Rex both looked down to find Andrew under a cloak floating with his Gengar's Psychic holding him up.

"This explains why nobody every found the darn thing," Gijo said. "Because they never erected a new pyramid but built a hidden cavern right in the already made Pyramid of Khufu."

"Exactly," Rex agreed. "And by building this cavern the Volcarona can have peace from their hard work, but they also guard a piece of the Odd Keystone that Andrew needs."

"We're going to have to beat him to it before he can get his hands on it!" Gijo said. "Golem! Give him some company!"

Throwing the ball down to Andrew Gijo and Rex continued to race against both time and their old friends to get to the hidden Pyramid of the Sun. As the PokéBall fell to the opened state Andrew turned around and chuckled.

"Sorry boys," Andrew said readying a PokéBall. "But your behemoth of a rock is going to have to keep its big self away from me; Hariyama! Whirlwind!" he shouted out throwing the PokéBall.

The large fighting Pokémon made a stance in the sand and pushed its large hand into the air and created an up burst of wind and sent back Golem just as it came out of the ball. Gengar then turned around and then picked up Hariyama with Psychic as the four continued to the pyramid.

"Ferrothorn, Sandstorm! Make sure they don't follow us!" Andrew called out.

Ferrothorn floated to the middle of the area and began to spin kicking up sand and then forcing it into a vortex that engulfed the entire area including where Hydreigon was flying blinding not only him but both Rex and Gijo at the same time. Chuckling Andrew continued towards the pyramid while Ferrothorn regrouped with the rest of the group.

Still blinded by the sandstorm and all three in a near blind panic Rex placed his hand on his head and then pointed two of his fingers and then opened them with full emotion. Hydreigon calmed down and followed Rex's hand as he pointed towards a center point. Chuckling to himself he spoke quietly to the top head of Hydreigon.

"Listen to what I'm saying Hydreigon; fire a focused and concentration Focus Blast towards the spot that I point at and the entire sandstorm will dissipate," Rex said pointing at one area in particular.

The three heads each fired their Focus Blast and Rex helped them to compress it. Hitting where Ferrothorn started from the sandstorm began to disappear into nothing as Gijo sent Golem back out to the Pyramid of Khufu.

As they reached the pyramid Gijo and Rex returned both their Pokémon and found the secret cavern carelessly left open as well as the passage to the tablet. Walking to the end of it Gijo noticed the hieroglyphs and drawings depicting the power of Volcarona. Touching it Gijo suddenly blasted backwards and found himself in shock.

"Gijo, buddy, you okay?" Rex asked helping him up.

"I-I've been here before. When I was younger I came here with my parents," Gijo said in a state of total shock.

"What're talking about? Do you mean to tell me you know how to open this thing to the secret compartment where the Volcarona are?" Rex asked hopeful.

"I might…" Gijo said walking up to the wall.

Looking at the wall for several minutes while Rex watched intently Gijo closed his eyes and placed his ear to the wall and focused. Listening to the wall he began to hear what sounded like flapping wings. Gijo's eyes widened and he turned to Rex with a smile.

"They're on the other side," Gijo declared. "And based on the carving it's pretty much saying we have to open this thing with psychic power which explains how Andrew got in there so quickly; he had Gengar to open the door," Gijo explained then slammed his fist into his open hand. "Shoot! If only we had a Pokémon that can use psychic based attacks."

"But we do," Rex said shuffling through his bag. "I figured that these old placed might be having requirements based on Pokémon elements so I bought this at the marketplace, Sableye!" Rex explained throwing the PokéBall and revealing it to be a ghost and dark Pokémon with jewels in the place of eyes.

"You just happen buy a Sableye in a marketplace? You sure you didn't always have that, like when you lived in the USA?" Gijo asked suspicious.

Rex chuckling nervously, "Oh come now, you know me better that that, right?"

"I don't know, do I?" Gijo asked.

Still nervous about Gijo asked Rex pointed toward the door and told Sableye to use Psychic on the tablet and move it out of that way. Sableye began to pull on the tablet and with trying the tablet went maybe close to one hundred feet back and stopped when it hit a wall that was there. Beneath Sableye were a set of stairs that went down into the depths of the pyramid and most likely to the Volcarona.

About halfway down with Sableye lightning the way with Flash Rex stopped and turned to Gijo.

"I thought you said that they were on the other side," Rex said looking at Gijo who was looking around as though in nostalgia.

"I did, there was a Volcarona here guarding the door and when we came through using Psychic it must have gone off to warn the others," Gijo explained.

"You mean a swarm of deadly fire moths are about to come and turn us into barbecue?" Rex asked surprised.

"No, probably it just told the rest to go into hiding," Gijo said. "More than likely these Pokémon have lived in peace for thousands of years and don't want that disturbed. So whenever someone breaches this place they go into hiding."

"One more thing; how did you know that it was Psychic that could open the door?" Rex asked.

"First was the tablet; it showed Volcarona going to the cavern and then a high priest lifting his hands and moving the tablet in front of the cavern to keep it safe, next was the fact that the old man used a Xatu, a psychic Pokémon by nature and obviously he knew what he had stumbled upon, he never once mentioned it was the Pyramid of the Sun in his story so he was trying to hide something, and finally in my book I found that when the power of the high priest grew weak they used their partners Kadabra, also psychic by nature, to seal the cavern," Gijo explained.

Following the stairs down to the lower levels of the cavern Gijo and Rex noticed that the area seemed to get brighter and brighter as they went down further.

"This probably means that we're getting closer to the Volcarona," Gijo deduced.

"Probably, since there's a big picture of the sun on that room's door posts," Rex said pointing at the sun symbol.

Slightly poking their heads into the cavern Gijo and Rex found over twenty Volcarona flying about, sleeping, and drinking water as it came out of a stream built in to the back wall of the cavern. Seeming as though they didn't notice them Gijo and Rex walked quietly into the cavern to find Andrew picking an old relic that looked like a base for something or another. Chuckling to himself Andrew turned to find Gijo attempting to jump only to be blocked by Hariyama's giant palm.

"Sorry I can't stay and chat but I've got other pieces to find," Andrew said dropping the first piece into his bag. "Why don't these guys keep you company?" he said motioning towards the Volcarona.

"What did you do them?" Rex asked.

"The truth of the matter is that these Pokémon are very territorial," Andrew said. "They practically incinerate anything that steps within fifty five of their home. Lucky for me Gengar's Hypnosis has completely erased their ability to recognize outsiders. The moment I step out here the Volcarona will recognize you and do what they do best, protect their territory. Good luck," Andrew said bolting for the door with Hariyama blocking for him.

Just as he said the second he and Gengar, Ferrothorn, and Hariyama left the room the Volcarona surrounded Gijo and Rex and all shook as though in dance.

"What are they gonna do? Dance us to death?" Rex asked.

"This is called Quiver Dance; it may seem silly but at the same time they're raising their special attack, special defense, and their overall speed," Gijo explained. "If we don't get out of this somehow we're gonna fry."

As the swarm ended their dance they focused on both of them when Gijo noticed Rex put his hand over his head again and pointed two of his finger. He then turned to Sableye and looked around and all the Volcarona.

"Sableye, Confuse Ray!" Rex called out.

Sableye lifted both of its hands glowing and then shot out it up. Rex focused his eyes on the light concentrated it just like he did with Hydreigon. Opening his hand and then looking at Sableye nodded. Sableye jumped up and hit the light as it began to spread striking all the Volcarona on the head confusing them. Ducking down low Rex, Gijo, and Sableye watched the Volcarona attack each other. Rex and Gijo chuckled while watching the twenty Volcarona attacking each other.

"Using the power of your concentration ability in conjunction with Sableye's Confuse Ray to cause widespread confusion, literally, and then using their Quiver Dance to cause each other more damage eliminating the threat was genius," Gijo said complimenting Rex.

"Just a little thing I do," Rex said.

After the twenty of them fainted Gijo leaned next to them and looked at a wing pattern on them. His face grimaced and looked back at Rex.

"These aren't the ones from Ancient Egypt!" Gijo declared excitedly. "Their wing patterns are similar, but in the older days of Egypt the spots on their wings were more abundant. These have only a few spots on their wings as a whole."

"But they got here somehow," Rex said looking around.

"But how?" both of them said.

As they contemplated the two felt another presence as a much larger Volcarona floated overhead. Breathing harshly in their faces Gijo and Rex chuckled nervously.

"Hey, buddy, let's talk this through," Rex said reassuringly.

The Volcarona reared its head back and thrust it forward letting out a Heat Wave attack that missed both Gijo and Rex but hit Sableye knocking it out instantly. Returning it Rex readied Hydreigon, but was cut-off by Gijo.

"Remember Volcarona is part bug and can therefore pretty much blast Hydreigon into next Tuesday," Gijo said.

"Then how do we beat it?" Rex asked.

"Like this," Gijo said holding a PokéBall. "Golem!"

The rock Pokémon stared into Volcarona's eyes and it did the same. Turning from each other the two began to pace the floor backwards.

"What is this? And old fashioned duel?" Rex asked.

"Ever since I've had him all Golem ever watches are old fashioned westerns and loves that scene where the sheriff and the outlaw take ten paces then shoot," Gijo explained.

"Well, I guess you can't say that Volcarona is pacing, but more importantly why is it so much bigger and is a lot older than the rest?" Rex asked.

"My guess, is that that Volcarona is from the actual time when they would take the place of the.

"Yet, it's placing like in an old western," Rex noted.

"Don't ruin this for me," Gijo said. "Maybe it's just copying Golem; I mean both of them seem to have the same demeanor."

"Yeah, that's it," Rex said sarcastically.

After the two Pokémon ended pacing Golem made the first move by stomping on the ground and punching the falling rocks towards Volcarona. Turning Volcarona was blasted by the rocks and then charged Golem and began to use Quiver Dance like the rest of the Volcarona.

"Golem, Dig!" Gijo called out.

Spinning in the ball form Golem began to burrow into the ground and dodge the second Heat Wave. After several seconds Golem popped out of the ground and punched Volcarona in the face. Volcarona pointed its head down and let out a third Heat Wave that blasted Golem into the ground. Cringing back up Golem looked back up to find a Fire Blast blasted towards him. Taking the full force of the Fire blast Golem struggled to get back up.

"This isn't exactly turning out to be easy," Rex said.

"The fact of the matter is that over thousand years this Volcarona has trained to be the strongest it can be. It doesn't matter how fast or how evasive a Pokémon if the wide spread power of that Heat Wave can cover the entire area," Gijo explained. "The only way to stop that thing is to prove that we have more physical power than it does fire power."

Rex raised an eyebrow and looked at Gijo, "Did that thing fry your brain! This Pokémon has got to be at a level rank of 100!"

"I know isn't it exciting!" Gijo asked excitedly.

"Yep, that thing fried your brain…definitely," Rex said backing to the wall.

Making a stance similar to his Golem Gijo looked straight into Volcarona's eyes and smiled as Volcarona simply huffed.

"Golem, Stone Edge!" Gijo shouted.

Stomping his feet on the ground like before Golem used his arms and began controlling the rocks that he had kicked up and surrounded Volcarona attack and continually striking it with the fury of rocks. Opening its eyes through the attack Volcarona used another Quiver Dance to raise its battle power and then began to glow a fiery red. Its body then became engulfed in flames and then began to make wild movements throwing the flames on its body.

"What the heck?" Gijo exclaimed as the fire made it look like the blazing heat of the sun.

"Gijo look out," Rex called out. "This is Fiery Dance, Volcarona's special move. It engulfs its own body in flames then in a random series of melodic movements it throws those flames at the opponent."

Gijo continued to be stunned at the movements made by Volcarona and disregarded everything Rex said.

"Are you listening to me?" Rex asked. "Get down, before you become a human steak!"

"Golem, go left in three counts!" Gijo said.

Golem dodged just a second before the flames hit. Volcarona then began to dance again and aimed in all directions.

"Golem, in four counts go right, and then in five more counts go up and attack with a Body Slam!" Gijo shouted.

"What are you talking about?" Rex asked.

"Like in any dance it focuses on a rhythm," Gijo explained. "Find the rhythm, predict the movement."

Golem followed Gijo's instructions moving to the right and jumping upward after a few seconds and used a six hundred pound Body Slam on Volcarona who, needless to say, didn't feel too good afterwards. Still cringing in pain Gijo pulled out a specialty PokéBall he bought from the market. The ball was dominantly blue with a black net design on it

"Net Ball, go!" he said throwing the special PokéBall.

When the ball hit Volcarona it opened and seemed to trap the large Pokémon in a net pulling it inside. Lingering for only a few seconds the ball instantly closed on Volcarona symbolizing a capture. Picking up the ball Gijo chuckled to himself and high fived both Golem and Rex.

"So where to next?" Gijo asked.

"Well, probably off to Scandinavia, for the other Pokémon that we volunteered to find," Rex answered. "Let's hope the others are having as much luck as we did."

"As I recall you said I was going to become a human steak," Gijo said.

"True, but—hey! You were listening to me!" Rex asked.

"Duh, I'm not an idiot but I was focusing on the rhythms. What do you take me for-? Rex why is Hydreigon out here? Why are you both looking at me like that? Wait, don't, no Focus Blasts!" Gijo said running out of the cavern and back out into the desert.

"Fine then, Hydreigon! Dragon Pulse!" Rex called out.

The three blasts turned into one thanks to Rex and were fired right at Gijo to blast _him_ into next Tuesday.

"What did I do!" Gijo asked loudly as his echo could be heard from the town.

The old man chuckled and stood up and walked away with Xatu.

"Well, Xatu it looks like they were finally able to calm down the wrath that is Volcarona, but can they calm each other down? Good luck Rex, Gijo…" the old man said before disappearing into the desert.

Location: Cote D'Azur, France

Rei and Brittany began to look at the area and stopped every three minutes for Rei to look at a clothing store only for Brittany to keep pulling her back.

"Come on Rei, we have work to do," Brittany said getting mad at Rei like sisters fighting about what they wanted to do.

"Right! We have to find that Pokémon, and there's only one way to know where it is!" Rei declared.

"And that is?" Brittany asked expectantly.

"…I don't know…" Rei said as Brittany fell over.

"This is gonna take a while…" Brittany said.

* * *

Chapter seventeen complete. One down, thirteen to go. This is gonna take a while. All in all I think that with an array of characters like this how could Andrew _not_ want to be with them?

Next time: Rei and Brittany are in France currently to find the majestic Pokémon Milotic. Can they find it in time or will hotel security keep them from the very Pokémon they have locked away as a center piece. Next time: Sacre Bleu! Trapped in the Hotel on the Riviera; Catching Milotic.


	18. Chapter 18

Here's chapter eighteen of my Pokémon songs fanfic. With one Pokémon down and the search really kicking off we go to France on the French Riviera in Cote D'Azur. Rei and Brittany now are looking for the Pokémon Milotic.

**DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NO CONNECTIONS TO POKEMON HOWEVER MUCH I LIKE TO THINK I DO. PLEASE DON'T REPORT ME FOR A SUIT FILE.**

International Tournament File 018: Sacre Bleu! Trapped in the Hotel on the Riviera; Catching Milotic

* * *

On the French Riviera one can see many things; generally the rich and famous lounging about on the beaches to their heart's content, and when they finish with that they go to a seven star resort and hotel to lounge about their rooms all the more with servants at their beck and call. As for the rest…tourists, and usually lost ones at that. This brings us to Brittany and Rei as they search for Milotic.

Walking on the observation deck Rei looked down at all the movie stars, company presidents, and other celebrities on the beach and tried to imagine herself down there. While still in her internal dream sequence Brittany tapped her shoulder breaking her out of her trance giving her a ticked off looked in her eyes.

"Hey Rei-chan, I think over there is where we can get to the hotel, nya," Brittany said not noticing Rei's frenzied look.

While on the bus Rei continued to have daydreams of being out on the beach which was continually broken by Brittany's nodding off onto her shoulder. About to attack her Rei noticed her more cute demeanor while asleep and simply smiled at her. Relaxing for the ladder part of the trip Rei saw the bus stop in a very familiar hotel.

"Hey, Brittany, wake up," she said shaking Brittany awake.

"Are we here, nya?" Brittany asked.

"Yeah, and I'm sorry to say that I've been here before," Rei said looking at the hotel.

"Really? When?" Brittany asked.

"When my family built it," Rei said looking at the doors and remembering so much from her past all in the blink of an eye.

Walking up to the hotel Rei was bowed to by the valet and was showed in with Brittany as her guest. Rei held onto her arm for the entire time while walking in there and turned to manager. The balding man looked up to see Rei and considered it a great pleasure.

"Ah Miss Zwing, it is so nice to see you after all these years. What can I do for you?" the man asked.

"Tell me if my family is here," Rei said quietly.

"Why yes, they are," the manager said with an enthusiastic smile on his face.

Rei flung her head down and looked up at the ceiling, _"Of all places, why did they have to end up here?"_ she thought to herself.

Both the manager and Brittany looked at Rei and then at each other and shrugged their shoulders.

Walking through the hallways Rei and Brittany found a room marked with a large "P" with a door left ajar. Gulping Rei knocked on the door and heard a voice from the inside that made her cringe. Suddenly the footsteps came closer and closer and Rei began to cringe even more when a middle aged man stepped out in a formal suit and with a glass of red wine in his hand. Still cringing while looking at him Rei closed her eyes only to be scooped up in a hug.

"Ah, Rei, my girl you've no idea how much I've wanted to see you!" he said.

"Daddy, you mean you're not mad at me anymore?" Rei asked still in his embrace.

"Well, your mother and I knew it was going to happen eventually," Rei's father said sarcastically.

Brittany walked in and tapped Rei's shoulder, "Who's this?" she asked.

"This is my father, Luca Zwing," she said pointing to the large man. "That is my mother Alina," she said pointing to a woman in an expensive looking black dress. "My brothers Leon and Jonas," she said pointing to two older boys seemingly in their late teens and early twenties each in a business suit. "And this is my little sister Emily," she said hugging onto a little girl with twin pony tails and wearing a similar dress to her mother's.

Brittany bowed to all of them and introduced herself, "It's very nice to meet you all, I'm Rei's friend Brittany, nya."

The entire family seemed nice to Brittany but Rei still seemed depressed. While the entire family along with Brittany had exchanged stories from their past experiences with businesses the entire attendance of the room began to hear a thumping from across the hall. Luca's face then turned mean as he left the room.

"Mother, what's wrong with Daddy?" Rei asked.

"Well, we've had problems with someone who just showed just a day ago. He came from the desert and all day just seems like he's fighting. Every time your father goes over there to give him what for he finds the door to be locked," Rei's mother Alina said. "But enough about that, Emily show your sister what you got a couple days ago."

Emily smiled happily as she showed her older sister and Brittany a case with four contest issue ribbons. Rei hugged her little sister and congratulated her on her success.

"So Rei how many have gotten?" Leon asked.

"Yeah, it's been months since we've seen you, you've probably won at least three by now," Jonas added.

Rei went into shock after those questions and began to flail around and try to think of something to say.

"Oh yeah well, I haven't had such great luck in contests recently but I'm still trying," she said to her family.

"Rei, what's going on, nya? What do they mean by contests, you're the most hardcore battler I've ever seen, nya?" Brittany asked in a whisper.

"My parents don't think that girls should be battling so me and my sister were raised to be in contests and I haven't told them that my biggest thrill is in the heat of battle," Rei explained. "So try to keep the fact I've been battling in the international tournament on the down low, okay?"

Rei's father came in with a Persian by his side as though he had just been roughed up. Still panting out of anger he sat back down and drank the rest of his beverage and breathed deeply and calmed down.

"Daddy what's wrong?" Emily asked.

"That stupid boy stays locked in his room and won't even listen to me, and this Persian from the habitat and its claws can't get through," Luca explained.

"Can I try?" Brittany asked.

"You?" Luca asked out of disbelief. "Well you can try, but I doubt it."

Stepping out of the room with Liepard on her hand Brittany took a deep breath and looked straight at the door.

"Liepard, Dark Pulse!" she shouted as the entire Zwing family took cover at the sound of the attack.

Blasting the door open Luca pushed Brittany out of the poked his head into the room and was pushed out by a giant palm and back against the wall. Going in the entire Zwing family with Brittany found a large Hariyama about to attack them as well when somebody in the corner shouted for him to stop. Looking in the corner Rei and Brittany cringed at the sight of Andrew in the same room as them.

"What are you doing here?" Rei asked.

"I could ask you the same question, but I won't. I'm here researching the next area to find the Odd Keystone," he explained while showing a laptop on his desk.

"Next question, why the bouncer, nya?" Brittany asked looking at the Hariyama as it folded its arms and looked at the six of the remaining conscious people.

"Gives me privacy; that is until you blasted the door with the Dark Pulse. Based on his training Hariyama's been taught to attack and then ask questions unless commanded otherwise," Andrew answered.

"What do you think is going to stop us from calling the police?" Rei asked.

"Two things; I've dodged the police as a hobby, and they have no jurisdiction over me here. As of now I have no reason to be hunted by the police in this area," Andrew explained confidently.

"Hey!" Leon said. "You're that super criminal whose been all over the world and has that warrant out for you in ten countries."

"Yes, except France is not one of them," Andrew answered in reaction to Leon.

"Then we'll drag you to the border of England," Jonas said. "Go, Scyther!"

Jonas threw his PokéBall and out popped a bug Pokémon with bladed arms. The Pokémon tried to attack him but was blocked easily by Hariyama.

"Hariyama, Force Palm!" Andrew yelled as Hariyama pushed it large palm against Scyther and then forced it back to the wall.

"Idiot, you think that that'll be enough to beat a bug and flying type; you're attack is only effective at 25%. Scyther show this hack how to really battle…what!" Jonas exclaimed as he found his Scyther lingering up against the wall.

"Force Palm," Andrew said to the attendance. "A fighting based attack in which it accesses sixty percent of the overall physical power of the Pokémon using it; as well as having a thirty percent chance of causing a state of paralysis. Next time think about who the real idiot is. Hariyama, Seismic Toss!"

Hariyama grabbed Scyther and began spinning in the air and then belly flopped onto the Pokémon knocking it out almost instantaneously. Jonas returned his Pokémon and then his brother, Leon, threw his PokéBall.

"Hypno, let's show 'em!" he said as a yellow tapir with a mane and pendulum came out. "Let's see you beat the simple concept of mind over matter…" he said but was cut-off by his Pokémon being launched into the wall.

"Next time, less talk, more action," Andrew said going back to his laptop and with Hariyama still in a previous stance from a Mega Punch. "Unless Rei or Brittany would like to battle…or the little girl next to them," he said looking down at Emily.

"Why are you asking Rei?" Leon asked. "She's a coordinator."

"She's been battling in the International Tournament for over a week now until my mishaps postponed it," Andrew explained. "And she has the most potential among female battlers I've ever seen."

Rei gulped out of fear as her family all glared and her father, just regaining consciousness, cracked his knuckles and looked at Rei.

"You've been lying to us all this time?" Luca asked angrily.

"More or less…" Rei said with a nervous chuckle.

"Look at it this way, old man," Andrew said getting Luca's attention. "It's way better than contests. What's the point of training Pokémon if their just show? When people are locked in battle they feel an overwhelming power of adrenaline. Another thing, you're completely crazy if you think that telling somebody what to do is really going to make them do it."

"What's that supposed to mean, criminal?" Luca asked.

"You thought that just telling Rei to do contests would make her like it when in reality it pushed her farther away from your initial wishes," Andrew explained. "If you saw her smiling face in battle and how much she has while doing I think you'd change your tone."

"What do you know?" he said throwing a PokéBall at his face. "Electabuzz, show him what truth is!"

Just as Electabuzz came within inches of Andrew's face it was blasted from a side coming Flamethrower. Rei panted as she had sent out Ninetales who looked at her father's Pokémon as angrily as Hariyama did for attacking its owner.

"Daddy, I love you, but I may love battling even more than that!" Rei shouted nearly at the top of her lungs.

Her father looked at her and slapped her face.

"Then you're grounded; you're not to leave this hotel room," he said pointing at the floor. "When I come back we'll have a long discussion about your behavior," he finished slamming the door as he refitted it himself and locking it from the outside with Emily waving goodbye to Rei.

After several minutes of silence in the room Andrew stood up and walked next to Rei.

"Good job," he said.

"How can you say that? I just disrespected my entire family and they're a powerful family," Rei said almost in tears.

"Yeah that's apparent by the Pokémon silhouettes all over my room that don't look like my Pokémon's," Andrew said sarcastically. "But I'm talking about your bravery in the face of that bully who calls him your father. It's said it takes more bravery to stand up to those you love than it does to stand up to those who hate."

"So now what, nya?" Brittany asked.

"We're going to break out of here," Andrew said. "Had it just been you two punished as a cause for Rei's battling I would've been out of here, but since I'm stuck with you as well I guess I should break you two out as well."

"So what now? Do you have some big escape plan that takes two days to complete?" Rei asked still depressed.

"If it were me by myself I'd be out of her in five minutes because I'd jump out the window and have Gengar carry me away, but since we got you and Gengar doesn't carry the thirteen of you trying to stop me…" Andrew explained.

"Actually Szac-kun called and said we had another person join us, nya," Brittany explained.

"Okay, fourteen of you trying to stop me. But the trick is to get the guards attention on something else while we head to the habitats behind the hotel," Andrew said pulling out a map.

"Hoe?" Brittany asked confused.

"Behind the hotel here there's a habitat with wild Pokémon for the rich and powerful to look at, like a zoo. And the centerpiece is that wild Milotic," Rei explained still depressed.

"Exactly, my thought is we make a distraction for that Golem of a father, get to the habitat, you guys get some extra back-up in the habitats like all the Persian and Arcanine, grab the Milotic for your guys' plan against me," Andrew explained.

"Sounds good, but why are you helping us, nya?" Brittany asked.

"Hey! I need some competition in this or it's no fun for me," Andrew explained. "So how about it girls, you in?"

"Definitely, nya," Brittany said.

Rei continued to sit in the corner and act as though she was just given a time out. Tears still protruding from her eyes she buried her face in between her legs and continued to cry.

"What's wrong now, brat?" Andrew asked bluntly.

"What did you say?" Rei said getting up and looking at him face to face.

"You're just going to pout because your father got mad at you for something you know you need to do to feel more alive?" Andrew asked. "Out of curiosity which cheek did he slap?"

"This one," Rei said pointing to her left cheek and was practically thrown down by another slap to her right cheek.

"Maybe that slap to the cheek your father did messed your brain up, so maybe that last one put it back into place," Andrew said looking mad. "You're actually going to listen to a family who treats you like an object? A family you've run away from before because you wanted something more and now because they can't accept what you've become you feel like you've failed?"

Rei nodded and turned to Andrew to find his face with a warmer smile. He shook his head and then offered her his hand.

Chuckling Andrew helped her back up, "Trust me, if anything, you're more of a Zwing than anyone in that room. Your grandfather and grandmother met as battling rivals and instead of inheriting you're mother's artistic talent you inherited your grandmother's ideals that the only thing worth anything in terms of Pokémon competition is battling. Show to them you're as much as a Zwing as they are."

Rei looked back and remembered her grandmother and her Arcanine battling with some of the best and pretty much beating the rest. Rei's face brightened up and then she hugged Andrew out of joy and thanks.

"I'm in, but the second this operation ends, we're turning you in," she said.

"Yeah good luck with that one," Andrew said walking up to the door.

"Out of curiosity how do we cause this distraction, nya?" Brittany asked from the far corner.

"Oh yeah, there's that…" Rei said.

"I've already taken care of it," Andrew said as though part of a horror movie.

As he said that the lights in the room began to flicker and then went completely dark. Laughing maniacally Andrew explained his devious plan.

"Gengar's been down in the control room ready for any emergency. He's cut-off all power and water which means the electronics controls on this lock…" he said as the door opened as if on cue. "…will open and set us free. Oh and cause a riot amongst the staff and guests here against your father," Andrew finished with a simple "Ha!"

Making their way down the stairs it wasn't long before several security officers came from behind to catch all three of them. Andrew then flailed his arms pointing to the right making them think they were going right while they went left. Unfortunately the right leads right to a wall.

"You know, I've never met any dumb enough to fall for that trick. And the French call Americans dumb," Andrew said.

Reaching the lower level of the hotel they found themselves in the lobby with guests complaining to the manager and the Milotic in the middle of it all in the inside pool. The Milotic continued to flail around until Rei walked up to it.

"Hey, girl, how you been all these years?" she asked as though approaching a pet.

"Is she off her rocker?" Andrew asked to Brittany.

"If she is it's because you and her father slapped her, nya," Brittany answered.

"Hey do you wanna get out of here with me?" Rei asked as the Milotic nodded nuzzling her face against Rei's.

Rei pulled out a specialty ball that was dominantly blue with a red pentagon and three yellow stripes for a design.

"Lure Ball, go!" Rei said as she threw the ball and it caught Milotic without as much as a struggle. "Andrew, open one of the water ways, please," Rei requested.

"Gengar, do you thing," Andrew said speaking into a head set.

Gengar pushed the button to open the water ways made for Milotic and then left as the guards looked inside the control station for anyone. Gengar rejoined the three trainers and Andrew returned for a job well done. Jumping in and swimming to the habitat the three trainers held onto Milotic who made swimming through the long water paths seem like child's play.

Resurfacing in the habitats Rei looked at the area in nostalgia and lay down in the grass and looked up to find an Arcanine panting in her face and then licking it. Laughing as the tongue tickled her Rei found Brittany having the time of her life among the Persian. Smiling as though looking at Emily Rei snapped out of it and caught one of the Arcanine and Brittany did the same with one of the Persian.

"Where's Andrew?" Rei asked and then looked up to find him floating with Gengar.

"Au revoir, Mademoiselles!" he shouted in French.

Rei smiled back to him and waved goodbye and looked as though the worst was over.

"So now what, nya?" Brittany asked.

Coming back to reality Rei's face froze in place, "Oh, I didn't think about that."

Walking into the habitat Rei's family looked at her in disappointment and then continued to walk towards her. Rei and Brittany readied all five Pokémon between them but both parties were cut-off by Emily.

"Please don't be mad at her, daddy!" she said with tears in her eyes.

"She's no daughter of mine," Luca said with his Electabuzz following him. "When she decided to battle instead of what was best for this family, she let down this family. She's no longer a Zwing, and neither is anyone who sympathizes with her."

"Then I'm not your daughter anymore either," Emily said and closed her eyes waiting for her father to slap her like he did to Rei.

Opening her eyes after hearing the slap Emily saw Rei take the slap for her and also saw all three of her Pokémon looking at Luca in rage.

"See even if two of these Pokémon are new I have this affect on them that says 'protect me,'" Rei said. "Touch me in any way that they don't find nice and they turn to more violent means of persuasion to get you to stop. For once in my life, you're going to see what it's like from our point of view, the victim."

Arcanine, Ninetales, and Milotic all jumped up and landed on both Luca and his Electabuzz and began continually using attacks consisting of bites, tackles, and slaps from a fish tail. As the three released him from the pile-up Luca and Electabuzz the two twitched in pain and got up to find Rei with her arms crossed.

"Daddy, I didn't want to hurt you, but you have to understand that this is my life, and if that means you can't accept it then I won't be considered a Zwing anymore," Rei said with a smile that her father looked at in shock.

"Mother…" Luca said looking at Rei.

Looking at Rei Luca looked back into himself and saw his mother, Rei's grandmother, battling with Arcanine and how she looked alive while doing that. Falling on his knees Luca looked back up at Rei and stood up and hugged her once more.

"Your mother is the most skilled coordinator as is your little sister, but we all know that sometimes talent skips a generation. My mother was the kind of woman who lived to battle and when she passed away her one regret was that she couldn't get one more battle before she passed," Luca said. "I didn't want battling to rule the lives of my daughter's lives, but I guess it was inevitable. I always thought that it was because battling that my father left her so I never wanted that for either of you."

Rei hugged him back and shed a few tears, "I know why you did it, but I wanted that freedom to choose to the extreme. It was my own selfishness that made me choose this life," Rei admitted.

The rest of the night was full of partying and amends being made between Rei's family and her. Brittany smiled and looked out the window and found a paper floating in a light blue film. Opening the window Brittany read the note and passed it on to Rei. Rei read it to herself and smiled in the same way.

"_To Rei and Brittany,_

_By the time you get this note I will have arrived in the next location of the Odd Keystone, but I thought I should let you know that I'm proud of both of you. Rei for standing up to her family and Brittany for not saying 'nya' every five seconds._

_~Andrew"_

Location: Kyoto, Japan

Cammie and Chase leaned against the platforms at Kiyomizu Temple looking out into the forested area of Eastern Kyoto.

"How long has it been since that particular one has been seen?" Cammie asked.

"Probably close to a century…" Chase said.

* * *

Chapter eighteen completed. Two down and twelve to go. I gotta say I'm going to be exhausted by the end of the summer.

Next time: In the forests of Kyoto Chase and Cammie try to find the third Pokémon on their list and after a few hours of searching get lost and separated making some old fears process. Next time: Cammie's Lantern in the Dark; Finding Shedinja.


	19. Chapter 19

Here's chapter nineteen of my Pokémon song fanfic. Two of the Pokémon that have the potential to defeat the Forbidden Pokémon Spiritomb, and now the groups are going on three. This Pokémon takes us to scenic Kyoto, Japan and the forests near Kiyomizu Temple. Unlike the others, this Pokémon's location is not fixed and therefore will be one of the hardest to find by far.

**DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NO CONNECTIONS TO POKEMON HOWEVER MUCH I LIKE TO THINK I DO. PLEASE DON'T REPORT ME FOR A SUIT FILE.**

* * *

International Tournament File 019: Cammie's Lantern in the Dark; Finding Shedinja

Walking along the platforms on the Kiyomizu Temple Cammie and Chase looked along the borders overlooking the forest. Cammie seemed more interested in the décor of the temple and caught back up to Chase.

"Hey Chase, what can you tell me about this temple?" Cammie asked.

Turning to her Chase smiled, "Well, I know that this temple is one of the independent Buddhist temples in the Kansai region of Japan," Chase explained. "This temple is also famous for the matchmaking stones; spaced about six meters (about twenty feet) from each other it's said that if you can walk between the two with your eyes closed you will find true love, it also has the waterfalls that run to this temple; separated into three shorter waterfalls by drinking from one of them it's said that you'll gain either health, wealth, or success in studies, and the jumping platform; meaning to literally 'take the plunge' during the Edo period in Japanese history it was said that if you survive jumping from the platform a wish of yours would come true…in total two hundred thirty four people were recorded to have jumped and about eighty five percent survive."

"Thanks for the textbook definition, professor," Cammie said sarcastically. "So why is this Shedinja different from others than some seen in other places?"

"Aside from its alternate coloration, it's said that this particular Shedinja was owned by a Buddhist priest who attained nirvana by casting out the hundred and eight temptations said to be the cause for Spiritomb," Chase explained. "So if there is at least one Pokémon that can beat that thing Andrew will release it'll be this Shedinja."

"No one's seen it in a hundred years and we're up here instead of out in the forest looking for it," Cammie said pointing down at the forested area.

Chase noticing where they finally were slapped his forehead and walked to the stairs to find Cammie not following him.

"Now what're you doing?" Chase asked looking back at her.

"Going down the easy way," she said climbing over the railings to the jumping platform. "You said eighty five percent, right?"

"Yes, but this isn't a practice anyone does anymore and if you do it…she just jumped down didn't she?" Chase said looking back over at the platform to see part of her ponytail before she disappeared into the forest. Running up to the platform chase looked over the edge and found nothing but trees and a small hole made in them by Cammie. "Cammie! You okay!" Chase asked.

"Eighty five percent!" Cammie yelled back slightly muffled.

Jumping down in the same way Chase landed on his feet to find Cammie on her knees as though she had fallen.

"Fell on your face again?" Chase asked.

"A little…" Cammie said with a nervous chuckle.

"I'm surprised that nose hasn't broken before," Chase said helping her up and then heading off into the thicker part of the woods.

Walking through the forested area Chase and Cammie both searched for Shedinja to come up with nothing. After searching for several hours the two decided to go back to the outer area to find a place to stay the night. Trying to stay connected to each other as the light in the area dimmed Cammie cringed as the dark enveloped the entire area. Reaching out to grab Chase's shirt Cammie lost her footing and fell down into a ravine. Shrieking all the way down there Chase felt around with his foot and found the ravine Cammie fell down into.

"Cammie! Answer me!" Chase yelled out down the ravine.

"I'm here!" Cammie yelled but was heard as whisper.

"Stay there! I'm coming around; Luxray should help in this case!" Chase yelled out.

Vaguely hearing his footsteps Cammie sat down on a rock she felt with her foot. Tapping her foot out of nervousness Cammie placed her hand on her head and snapped her fingers.

"Umbreon, light the area up," Cammie said releasing her Pokémon out of its PokéBall.

Umbreon nodded to Cammie and began to laminate the rings on its body. Cammie smiled as though the light was giving off heat and relaxed and began to doze off. Before going to sleep Umbreon cringed in pain waking Cammie up and looking at Umbreon. Umbreon struggled to stand back up and then cringed again as though being struck multiple times.

"Umbreon, are you okay?" Cammie asked.

After being continually struck by something invisible Umbreon's light began fade and then fainted into the darkness. Cammie returned Umbreon and then looked around and heard strange moaning sounds coming from the darker parts of the forest. As the sounds came closer Cammie continually looked around the area to find nothing.

"Chase? Please tell me that's you," Cammie said as fearful as ever.

The sounds came closer and sounded as though it was right on top of her. Turning around to see a Gengar's face as it licked hers. Twitching slightly Cammie chuckled nervously and almost fainted if the fear didn't get to her first. Running away and shrieking out of fear Cammie could hear the Gengar's laughter and looked back to see a trainer return it. The trainer looked as though he was tipping a hat to her and left the area.

"Just my luck, just my luck, just my LUCK!" Cammie said repeatedly falling down while running through the forest.

Falling down in the mud again and lifting her head Cammie looked at her hands and looked up at the night sky. Shedding her tears out of sadness Cammie looked up to find a light floating through the forest leading a swarm of other bug Pokémon. Focusing her eyes Cammie saw the Pokémon as a Shedinja with a streamer headband and a body striped in paint.

"Is that?" Cammie exclaimed as she followed her discovery deeper into the forest.

Meanwhile at the bottom of the ravine Chase, after an hour of searching for the hill downwards, looked at the scene and found where Cammie had fallen, but found no one. Also finding footprints matching Umbreon's Chase sighed.

"Okay, Luxray," Chase said very concerned for Cammie and Umbreon. "The fact that these footprints are in one spot suggest that Umbreon was only right her and the fact part of its more indented suggests it cringed after being attacked by something, and Cammie's footprints are far apart meant she was running, probably out of fear. What can you see?"

Luxray opened its eyes in a luminescent glow and then motioned to Chase. Chase pulled an electronic encyclopedia looking at Luxray flip through the pages and stopped on a page with the picture of a Gengar on it. Chase nodded and then Luxray flipped to a page with the picture of a Ninjask.

"Why does this sound so much like Andrew?" Chase pondered.

"Because it is," Andrew's voice came out.

"Where're you?" Chase called out angrily.

"Look in front of you," Andrew's voice said.

Chase looking in front took two steps forward and found himself face-to-face with a Ninjask holding a cell phone on speaker and part of its wing damaged.

"What'd you do to Cammie?" Chase asked still angry.

"Ask both Ninjask and Gengar, the little pranksters," Andrew said. "While Ninjask terrorized Umbreon, Gengar terrorized Cammie," he said with a slight chuckle in his voice.

"Cammie's afraid of the dark and your Gengar doesn't help with that, I hope you know now," Chase explained.

"Gee, if I had known that I wouldn't have scared her in the forest when Shedinja roams the lands," Andrew said sarcastically. "I hope you know that I'm the bad guy, but thanks for making me feel like real jerk. Chase, one day you'll realize that I do things for kicks because getting the last five pieces of the Odd Keystone is going to get monotonous one of these days."

"You have two?" Chase asked in disbelief.

"What can I say? I work fast," Andrew said. "By the way until we see each other again, see ya!"

After the phone hung up Ninjask began to fly off with Chase threw a tracer onto his body. Chase sighed out of concern again and turned around to find Cammie staring at him. Recoiling back a few feet Chase saw behind it a Shedinja with a streamer headband and paint in streaks across its body and on its wings.

"When did you? How did you? Where did you?" Chase asked in succession.

"I guess that leaves 'why,' 'what,' and 'who,' doesn't it?" Cammie noted smiling.

"You found the Shedinja in your state of panic? How?" Chase asked.

"Well let me tell you that this little bug caused me a lot of trouble tracking him down and then catching him was harder," Cammie said going back into a flashback.

_Cammie followed the swarm of bug types to a small temple lit by candles they apparently held as Shedinja went in front of the shrine. Sneaking around behind the trees Cammie found the Pokémon in a seeming ritual and found Shedinja spinning as though in dance._

"_And this is the Pokémon that can beat Spiritomb by magic powers inherited from a previous trainer?" Cammie asked in disbelief._

_As Shedinja finished its ritual when a Nincada walked up to it and seemed to whisper something into its _"ear"_. Shedinja turned to Cammie's direction and floated with Cammie held her breath and hoping they hadn't seen when Shedinja stopped in front of a Ninjask. _

_Leaning in front of it Shedinja shook its body when the Ninjask flew up and charged it with an X-Scissor attack. Cammie jumped in front of Shedinja protecting it and cringing bracing herself for the pain when she heard the impact but against Shedinja. Shedinja pushed it back and the shine on it was noticed almost indefinitely._

_Cammie looked at Shedinja who had turned around, "Why did you save me? I ruined your ritual," Cammie said confused._

"_There's nothing to be sorry or confused about child," a voice came from the Shedinja._

"_And why not…?" Cammie asked then noticed that the Shedinja was talking like a human. "How did you that?"_

"_Call it practice," Shedinja explained. "Maybe it's the nirvana, it must of done something."_

"_Do you have to sarcastic?" Cammie asked crossing her arms._

"_Yes, wait no; did you want a sarcastic answer to that question?" Shedinja asked._

"_Better yet, how come you talk like Groucho Marx?" Cammie asked._

"_TV," Shedinja said. "What you thinking, we're some Shinto students that are isolated from society? This place is filled with Ninjask more than what we know what to do with. So before going to sleep we all go spy on the humans and watch their TVs. Trust me, I like my Soap Operas," Shedinja explained._

"_I don't believe this," Cammie said pacing her spot._

"_Neither do I, can you believe that those American politicians think they can sweep scandals like that super criminal under the rug for long before he gets out," Shedinja said reading a newspaper._

"_Are we having a serious conversation, or not?" Cammie asked._

"_That's right," Shedinja said._

"_What is?" Cammie asked._

"_You're trying to have a serious conversation, and I'm not," Shedinja. "Hey, I learn a lot from TV…specifically that comedy show where you people actually take that Andrew kid seriously, the show they call the news, that, and that whenever a celeb gets a tattoo you all freak more than when someone lived after jumping at the Kiyomizu platform. Now, I'm assuming you wanted something?" Shedinja asked._

"_Yeah, I wanted to catch you," Cammie said. "But I'm guessing you're not the Pokémon of a historical Buddhist master," she finished._

_Just before disappearing into the forest the tree next to Cammie was destroyed by a Shadow Ball attack. Shedinja floated by her and disappeared and appeared again scaring her like the Gengar from earlier._

"_You have several problems; one; you allow your fear of the dark overrule everything you do, two; you judge books by their covers and Pokémon by their personality, and three; you forget to brush your teeth, and that's coming from a bug without a nose," Shedinja explained._

"_Okay fine," Cammie admitted. "I'm scared out of my wits! I hate the dark and thought that I was tough one by jumping off the platform first."_

"_Cammie," Shedinja started. "Fear is a natural thing; if you don't have it than you're not human, and that's coming from a bug. I'm sure Chase's fear is knowing he could be a reason you could get hurt; as friends you two share a bond that most lovers don't even share. Tell you what, you can catch me!" Shedinja declared._

"_Really?" Cammie asked._

"_If you can pass my test. In the studies of nirvana it is said that one must cast out one hundred and eight evil temptations," Shedinja explained. "A number of them apply to you at this moment. But for you must meditate, in complete motionlessness, in the dark alone for five minutes."_

"_How tempting is that?" Cammie asked._

"_Because I will be watching you and with a lantern. If you want to give up I will give you the lantern and you don't get to catch me," Shedinja said propping a lantern on his wing._

_In the pitch dark void of where Cammie was sitting she breathed several times deeply to keep herself calm. Shedinja was right above her in a tree with the lit lantern when we motioned for something. Still in meditation a Nincada crawled up to her and poked her leg. Cringing just slightly Cammie opened her eyes to find the Nincada staring into her eyes. Shrieking Cammie recoiled back and propped herself up against the tree._

_Shedinja floated back down to her and shook his body._

"_Tell you what, kid," Shedinja said. "I'll give you two more chances; just like the game, 'THREE STRIKES, YOU'RE OUT!" _

_On the second attempt even with the Nincada poking her leg Cammie stayed motionless and paid the Nincada no mind. Shedinja giggling from the tree motioned again and two Ninjask buzzed over to her and landed on her head with two Nincadas poking both legs. Cammie breaking down screamed and ran to another tree and found no one coming down. Sighing out of relief Cammie turned around to find Shedinja staring right into her eyes._

"_Strike two, Ichiro," Shedinja said. "Maybe you'd like to take a little break."_

"_Yeah, maybe," Cammie said following him._

_Back at the shrine Shedinja had Ninjask keep maintenance on the old wooden structure._

"_Cammie," Shedinja said. "Do you know why you're failing?"_

"_Because I'm letting my fears get the better of me?" Cammie asked as though in school._

"_That and you're not the same girl who just this morning took the plunge, something no one has done in over eight hundred years," Shedinja said. "Let me tell you a story; when my master had first come here to the Kiyomizu temple he was originally a Shinto priest. Sure, Buddhism and Shinto aren't that far apart, but it was definitely an adjustment. For the first few weeks he was fine, but as time went on he began to wonder what the difference really was between Shinto and Buddhism. Do you know what he found out even after attaining Nirvana within four days?"_

"_That Shinto was better?" Cammie asked unsure of herself._

"_No, and thank you for the 'Answers for Dummies' book answer," Shedinja said. "He found that the only difference between Buddhism and Shinto, to him, was his motivation. He had always wanted to be a priest, what kind he wouldn't ever know until attaining nirvana. He found that being an independent Shinto priest where he was at a place where he could be loved and could positively love back was his nirvana. But his master was a tough one; he always said that if you attain nirvana you have to stay. So my master decided to take the plunge at Kiyomizu shrine to get a wish granted."_

"_What did he want?" Cammie asked._

"_Something that, back then, was only possible by a miracle…freedom," Shedinja explained. "The only thing in the world my master wanted was the freedom to choose his path in life. Of the two hundred people who lived after jumping, my master wasn't one of them. So I took his Shinto streamers and made this headband as a memento and I painted my body so Pokémon would see that I can be the same that he was. Every night we all gather and say to him; 'please send us a sign that people like you still live,' and finally you come here."_

"_Me? Why me?" Cammie asked with a small chuckle in her voice._

"_You've made many plunges in your life; you've made a plunge to stay by your foster parents and even promise to them that they will never have to say goodbye to you forever, you made a plunge to be friends with Chase, you didn't know how you were going to get along with him and now look at ya, and your next plunge is to decide whether or not you can pass my test," Shedinja described in detail._

_Going back out Cammie thought only about what Shedinja had said and relaxed into her meditation. Shedinja dozed off slightly and dropped an hourglass timer in which it shattered giving no way of keeping time. Waking up to find Cammie still in meditation Shedinja smiled and floated down to her and struck her Dusk Ball. Giving no resistance Shedinja had been caught waking up Cammie who felt the weight of her ball change and then sending out Shedinja._

"_So how'd I do?" Cammie asked._

"_I fell asleep and broke my timer, I have no idea," Shedinja said. "So I guessed…" he said his voice fading._

"_Shedinja what's wrong?" Cammie asked holding him._

"_I'm sorry…" he said. "After my capture I will lose my curse of being able to talk. I can rejoin the ranks of me being a Pokémon again… Thank you Cammie, oh, and happy birthday…" he said his voice weakening all the more._

"_Wait a minute! How do you know so much about me and Chase and maybe all of us?" Cammie asked._

"_Nirvana…" Shedinja said sarcastically. "And I read your diary in your bag while your meditating those first two times…and your name was on the bag so that's how I knew everything… Now your friends may not know you, but at least you too can say that you have a story to tell about both yourself and your plunges…" he finished his voice completely cutting off._

Back in the present Cammie smiled at Chase who was thinking she was pretty much crazy. Chase was about to note that a Shedinja couldn't talk when he remembered his tracer he put on the Ninjask.

"Come on, Cammie!" Chase said. "I know how to get out of here now!"

Following him Cammie smiled at Shedinja as she returned him back to its PokéBall. At the edge of the forest Chase found his sensor on the ground attached to a note addressed to Cammie.

Cammie ripped the note out of the envelope and read it aloud.

"_To Cammie…and Chase since I know he'll read it with you,_

_Sorry our visit was short and I do deeply apologize for scaring you earlier…PSYCH! Maybe next time, oh and make sure you tell Shedinja that the Ninjask he had me take care of with the Odd Keystone piece as payment is in good hands._

_~Your Favorite Super Criminal, Andrew_

Shaking their heads Chase and Cammie threw the note in the trash and began walking off to their next encounter with Pokémon.

Location; Yucatan Peninsula, South America

Alejandro and Star battled through wild brush using Alejandro's Porygon2, note the evolution, used a Sharpen attack to keep the plants out of their way. Stopping in front of a large pyramid shaped tower Porygon2 acted as radar and pointed at the entrance.

"C'mon, Alejandro," Star said pulling him up. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know; it's like I feel like we're being watched," Alejandro explained. "And this weird disk somebody sent me when we were at the hotel," he said holding a purple floppy disk that seemingly repulsed Porygon2. "Calm down, Cyber. Until I know what this is, I won't use it."

Walking up to the pyramid's entrance Alejandro looked over his shoulder to find nothing. Turning his head two suspicious figures reared their heads and grinned evilly.

* * *

Chapter nineteen completed. Three down eleven to go, although based on a new OC sent to me, it might be longer. Won't that be fun (cue forced laughter)? But seriously I have a blast writing this story.

Next time: In an ancient pyramid in the Aztec jungles Alejandro and Star don't have to deal with Andrew but a far more threatening force, and one insane new comrade. Next time: The Dubious Disk of Doom; Arrival of a Terrifying New Force.


	20. Chapter 20

Here's chapter twenty of my Pokémon song fanfic. With eleven Pokémon left to find on their list the group of trainers from around the world are now taken to an area in Mexico (my mistake from the other chapter) known as the Yucatan Peninsula where Star and Alejandro with his newly evolved Porygon2 search for the next Pokémon on their list, but will have three problems; one, finding said Pokémon, two, dealing with a mysterious force currently stalking them, and three, the debut of an insane new Pokémon on their side.

**DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NO CONNECTIONS TO POKEMON HOWEVER MUCH I LIKE TO THINK I DO. PLEASE DON'T REPORT ME FOR A SUIT FILE.**

* * *

International Tournament File 020: The Dubious Disk of Doom; Arrival of a Terrifying New Force

Walking up the steps to the entrance Alejandro looked at the surrounding area and squinted his eyes towards the forest and sent out Darmanitan and sent him out to the forest.

"Anything wrong, Alejandro?" Star asked looking back.

"Just checking something out," Alejandro said. "Call it a bad premonition."

Star shrugged her shoulder and the two continued to the inside. Following Star Alejandro shook his head and thought to himself, _"How'd we end up here from Spain?"_ going back into a flashback to two days before.

_Alejandro began typing madly at his computer searching anything that may help them found the Pokémon they were looking for. Relaxing back into his chair and rubbed his forehead._

"_How bad is it?" Star asked looking through most of his old books._

"_Bad, how's that? I don't have enough megabytes to expand my searched," Alejandro explained. "Without enough memory we can find even so much clue where they are."_

"_Can't you download something like an upgrade so your computer has enough memory?" Star asked._

_Pondering that question for several seconds Alejandro began to type wildly at his keyboard._

"_Now what're you doing?" Star asked._

"_Making an upgrade for one of my Pokémon. A few years back a spam message appeared as a Porygon and I've used it for my more difficult searches that most engines can't without accessing classified files, but if I can upgrade my Pokémon like the Silph Company did by making an Upgrade I can access for information about all of them," Alejandro explained._

_Finishing typing Alejandro motioned for Porygon._

"_Cyber, get in the computer. Get ready for an upgrade," Alejandro said smiling._

_Porygon jumped into the computer and looked at Alejandro while on a separate screen window. Alejandro made the finishing touches to the upgrade and downloaded it to Porygon. Cringing slightly as the downloaded and began to change its programming. Rounding out its edges all over its body and then reemerged as the Pokémon Porygon2._

"_Alright, Cyber, see if you can get into the search engine and begin primary override," Alejandro said as Porygon2 began going faster than the internet would allow._

_While inside Alejandro and Star watched Porygon2's icon as it went through firewalls much simpler than any virus or hacker could. Stopping at a restricted website Porygon2 downloaded all the information and fled the area before security programs were aware of its presence. Returning several seconds later Porygon2 downloaded the entire file onto Alejandro's e-mail page. Reading it in its entirety Alejandro turned in his chair to face Star and then smile at her._

"_We're going to Mexico," Alejandro declared._

_Touching down in Mexico two days later Alejandro and Star went through customs and checked Alejandro's laptop and found nothing incriminating or encrypted. Arriving at the hotel Alejandro looked at the download and typed several encryptions on the file but came up with nothing._

"_Why do you need to know what it says? That, and how did you know where we had to come without knowing what it said?" Star asked._

"_The pictures show carvings in the shape of the Pokémon we're looking for and in other pictures it shows this pyramid," he said pointing at the pyramid in the computer. "So knowing where we need to be, but the rest of this is like reading Egyptian hieroglyphs."_

_Looking at the picture of the words Star turned her head slightly and turned it back._

"_Don't they kinda look like letters?" Star asked._

_Alejandro stopped typing and looked at each symbol and slapped his forehead._

"_And here I am with a Bachelor's Degree in computer engineering." _

_Going through each symbol and matching it to an appropriate Romanized letter the two found three words that made them believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were on the right track._

"_WE ARE UNOWN"_

Back from the flashback Alejandro looked down at a purple floppy disk and remembered an old woman who gave it to him after bumping into him and snickering all the way until she was out of sight.

While inside the pyramid the dark began to overwhelm the small amounts of the light protruding from the entrance.

"Cyber, Flash, if you would," Alejandro said as the Porygon2's eyes lit up and acted as flashlights.

Following the path to the deeper caverns Alejandro periodically looked over his shoulder as though someone was following them. Each time seeing nothing and turning away two figures each poked their heads from behind a wall and chuckled evilly.

Reaching the center cavern and finding a large tablet in the center of the room and looking at the inscriptions on it. Following them around the tablet Alejandro wrote down the words and regrouped with Star who stood guard by the door.

"So the inscription says, 'Only one can enter our domain, inside we will give them the chance to prove themselves against us. The other must be one of sound mind and body able to protect the other while they fight. If they begin to doubt either themselves or their comrade the person will be forced to stay with us forever.'"

"So what do you want to do?" Star asked.

"I would like to go down their but you have the greater speed and the Unown are tricky; we need power. I'm sorry to say, but…" Alejandro explained by was cut-off.

"I'll do it!" Star shouted. "I want to do it, please let me do it!"

After sighing heavily Alejandro nodded and pushed open the tablet just as two figures entered the room. Making the tablet fall to the ground Alejandro motioned for Star to jump down into the hole on the table. One of the two figures still cloaked in shadows lunged forward but was blocked by Porygon2. Alejandro moved the tablet back into place and tapped a communicator on his ear and whispered to Star.

"The tablet has been placed back over the hole, but hasn't been sealed, just trust me on this," Alejandro said.

"Got it. Take them out!" Star said in the comlink.

Standing up and turning to the two figures Alejandro and Porygon2 looked at the two figures that came out of the shadows. Both people, one girl and one boy, wore black suits wearing berets and a large R on the chest of their uniforms.

"You must be Team Rocket," Alejandro said looking at the two. "Andrew's told me all about you…in his nightmares."

"Andrew means nothing to us, but the Unown do," the woman said. "And you two as well. For some reason it all just works out like that."

"Yeah well, you won't be able to stop someone like me," Alejandro said. "Cyber, do your thing! Psybeam!"

Porygon2 fired a resonating beam from its mind and thrust it towards the two operatives who dodged it sending out their own Pokémon. One sent out Hitmonlee while the other sent out Hitmonchan. Attacking Porygon2 with punches and kicks Alejandro breathed deeply and reopened his eyes and looked at Porygon2.

"Conversion 2!" Alejandro shouted changing its color to a dark purple.

Hitmonchan thrust its punch towards Porygon2 only for it to go right through and hit the Hitmonlee instead. Hitmonlee trying the same thing hit Hitmonchan with a strong Rolling Kick.

"Alright kid, what'd you do?" the male operative asked angrily.

"You're like a day older than me. And Conversion 2, as opposed to the original Conversion which changes the element of my Pokémon to one of the elements of my known attacks, changes my element to something that has a resistance to an attack that attacked me previously, hence I turn into a ghost," Alejandro explained. "Cyber, Shadow Ball!"

Shooting out two shadowed orbs Porygon2 defeated both Pokémon and returned to the middle of the room with Alejandro. The two operatives chuckled and then pulled out a small laptop and began typing as fast as Alejandro could. Finishing typing the male operative pressed the "Enter" key and sent a program to Alejandro's laptop. Trying to isolate the program Alejandro then heard his voice coming from the laptop.

"Cyber, get in the laptop," the program said.

Porygon2 went into the computer out of instinct and then looked at Alejandro confused.

"Wait, Cyber, that's not me!" Alejandro called out.

"Too late, nerd!" the female operative said giving the male operative the purple floppy disk. "That program will keep your Pokémon in your laptop just long enough for us to download this disk; you dropped it a while back and ruined our plan for you to upgrade your Porygon2 with it, but now it looks like we'll have to do it for you."

Finishing typing the male operative downloaded the program and sent it to Alejandro's laptop. Porygon2 cringed like it did before and began to reprogram itself as before and lost both of its legs and its arms were separated from its body and its body simply floated in midair.

"What did you do to Cyber?" Alejandro asked looking at its new form.

"Call it reprogramming," the male operative. "When a Porygon2 is, for want of a better word, upgraded it becomes a program Pokémon known as Porygon-Z. Let's see if you can control it now!"

"Cyber, you remember me, right?" Alejandro asked looking at the laptop screen.

The Pokémon nodded several times and then kept on nodding as though it was unable to stop. Placing its two unattached arms on its face Porygon-Z stopped nodding and then its arms began flailing like its head did. Alejandro began typing and released from the laptop to find it floating vertically instead of horizontally like usually. The two operatives sent out two more Pokémon revealed to be Arbok and Sandslash.

Charging forward Sandslash attempted to, but failed, in striking Porygon-Z as it flipped up its lower body and began looking as it was snickering. Alejandro slapped his forehead and watched as it looked as though it was dancing while dodging the attacks.

"Great," Alejandro said. "I'm looking for a powerhouse of a program and what do I get? I get a cross of ballet, flamenco, and break dancing!" he said as he found Porygon-Z spinning on the ground and making poses in between the two Pokémon's attacks.

The Team Rocket operatives looked at each other in disbelief at how easily their Pokémon were defeated by such a, for want of a better term, idiot. Alejandro looked at the two of them with rage and breathed deeply and calmed down before asking them an important question.

"Why is he like this?" Alejandro asked.

"It's the effect of the Dubious Disk, a virus infected program that is the only program able to make this change to Porygon-Z, but induces wild and erratic behavior in the Pokémon it was used on," the male operative explained. "Why aren't you pleased with this battle result?"

"Because I can't stand out of control Pokémon!" he shouted causing Porygon-Z to stop in its dance routine. "I need focus in my life and _that_ doesn't help with it," he explained.

Porygon-Z floated over to Alejandro and slapped him on the cheek with its arm and kept spinning given its body was detached.

"If you think it's funny, don't," Alejandro said.

Porygon-Z and Alejandro stared at each other and glared all the more until the two operatives began to sneak out.

"What do you have to offer me? A compilation of the Three Stooges all in one program?" Alejandro asked sarcastically.

Before the two could continue their conversation the Team Rocket operatives met face to face with Darmanitan while in Zen mode with another Pokémon in the shadows. Both blasted the operatives and their Pokémon back into the wall in the same room as Alejandro. Both Alejandro and Porygon-Z looked at the scene and found Darmanitan being followed by a large Tropius growling at the Team Rocket operatives.

"Hey looks like you did good Darmanitan. Find a Pokémon in the forest that could understand peace, and here you come with a very peaceful bringing Pokémon; unlike Larry, Curly, and Moe in one over here," Alejandro said motioning towards Porygon-Z.

Looking at each other Porygon-Z and Alejandro glared at each other all the more until Darmanitan looked at Alejandro expectantly.

"What?" he asked. "Let me guess, it isn't fair to judge a book by its cover so I should apologize to Cyber because it wasn't his fault that they downloaded a virus, basically, into his programming and oh my goodness! Star! I completely forgot about her because of the Marx Brothers floating next to me."

Porygon-Z chuckled slightly and helped push at the rock with Alejandro, Tropius, and Darmanitan for several seconds and found it to be almost completely cemented in.

"Great, because of Abbot and Castillo over here I can't even save a friend and someone who I can relate to!" Alejandro said basically losing his mind.

The operatives regained consciousness and turned their attention to Alejandro still in a complete wreck. Sneaking up quietly behind them and finding him in a nervous wreck.

"No…" Alejandro said with his eyes losing emotion. "How can I blame someone who lived with me and helped me find everything I wanted to know, sometimes just for kicks? What's so different between him and my original Cyber anyway…beside the obvious insanity? If I take a good look at it; it was my own inability to have full trust in all my partners whether they be up here with me or down there with the Unown. The tablet it said that inability to trust one's comrade will result in banishment to the Unown realm forever; and because I took my Cyber's power for granted and allowed myself to be angered by nothing more than a personality quirk. Now how can I call myself one who has attained peace of mind? Another thing, boys turn around and knock those two screwballs more senseless than they already are!"

Turning around the three Pokémon jumped the Rocket members and continued to beat up on them with Porygon-Z jumping every now and again making a fighting move pose. Smiling as his eyes regained emotion.

"Forgive me, Star. This is gonna be one heck of a story to break to your mother," Alejandro said shaking his head.

"What do you mean?" Star's voiced asked.

"Hey, wait!" Alejandro exclaimed looking behind him to find the tablet moved and Star standing there next to it.

"How did you make it out? It was completely sealed off," Alejandro asked.

"I used your teachings of using that alter ego and after I caught one of the Unown," she explained with an Unown resembling an S floating next to her, "I had it use Hidden Power to attack the rocks. Apparently this one uses water based Hidden Power. So what was the big thing you were apologizing to me for?"

"Oh, nothing important, either way let's get these two to jail," Alejandro said motioning towards the Team Rocket members.

"So they are real…" Star said.

"Were you hoping they wouldn't be if you had believed it hard enough?" Alejandro asked. "All we do know is that if they're here, they must want the same thing. Power to defeat Andrew, and they'll need lots of it."

Leaving the pyramid with the two outlaws in tow Alejandro looked behind him to see all the Pokémon and Star smiling amongst each other and then said under his breath, "this is peace." Taking a step Alejandro slipped on a banana peel seemingly attached to his foot. Turning around Alejandro stared at Porygon-Z who simply sweated down a waterfall and ran off with Alejandro in hot pursuit.

"They're a perfect match," Star said quaintly.

Location: California, USA

Walking along the shorelines Andrew watched the sun set and sighed heavily and looked up at the dimming sky.

"I wonder what people who lose their memories do with the rest of their life," he said before walking off.

* * *

Chapter twenty complete. As of now OCs are now closed because I'm running out of options. But don't worry for those who want to submit an OC, there will be another opportunity coming up. With four Pokémon down off the list that leaves ten more to get, can they find all the Pokémon before Andrew can find the entire Odd Keystone?

Next time; Andrew's completely forgotten who he is and now is living with one whacked out family. A son who comes back only to go to sleep, an adopted daughter, and now an unknown criminal using their guest house. But what secrets do these people really hide? Next time: Picking Up the Pieces; Andrew Meets Friends.


	21. Chapter 21

Here's chapter twenty one of my Pokémon song fanfic. So far on the list of Pokémon that have been caught according to Chase's list the heroes have Volcarona, Milotic, Shedinja, and Unown. A good start, but can they beat Andrew since he has two of the seven pieces of the Odd Keystone? Could be given what's happened to Andrew, I'd think so.

**DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NO CONNECTIONS TO POKEMON HOWEVER MUCH I LIKE TO THINK I DO. PLEASE DON'T REPORT ME FOR A SUIT FILE.**

* * *

International Tournament File 021: Picking Up the Pieces; Andrew Meets Friends

Opening his eyes slowly Andrew sat up in a bed and looked around with his eyes dead. Standing up and making his way down a staircase Andrew braced himself on the wall going down the spiral staircase. Going down the stairs another boy passed by. The boy was Mexican in origin, was about as tall if not taller than Andrew, seemed a bit older, and wore a black t-shirt with a pair of dark colored cargo pants. Waving to Andrew, Andrew did the same out of instinct and continued to go down the stairs where he found a middle aged couple looking at him eagerly.

"Good morning, Andrew," the man said with his balding head. "How did you sleep?"

"Well," Andrew responded. "Thank you. By the way who was that guy I passed in the hall on the stairs."

"Oh that was Ven," the woman said. "Pay him no mind. He's only here temporarily while his father is away on business."

"Unlike me," a young girl said coming down the stairs. "Ven gets to leave eventually. Me, I have to stay."

"That's no way to talk, young lady!" the man shouted out. "Please, we have a guest."

"That's right," the girl said coming down next to Andrew and placing her hand on his shoulder in a royal blue tank top with dark blue denim shorts and black hair reaching down past her shoulder to the middle of her back. "How did you sleep with the monkeys of the house loose?" she asked looking over at the two adults.

Constraining their anger the two adults chuckled sarcastically while Andrew looked at the girl and smiled. Standing Andrew left for his temporary room and lowered his head in saying bye. Waving goodbye the girl's mood dimmed as she turned around to see the two adults cracking their knuckles.

After hearing a knock on the door Andrew turned around and opened the door and returned to the windowsill and looked out at the scenery and found the girl from before walk in.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" Andrew asked.

"Nah, just needed someone to talk to," the girl said extending her hand. "I'm Amara."

"Nice to meet you," Andrew said shaking her hand. "So what did you want to talk about?"

"Anything," Amara said. "I know you can't remember anything, but what happened to you?"

"Based on the massive size of the bump on my head; I'd guess I was hit by something bigger than pebble," Andrew said holding his head where a bump could be felt. "What about you? Why're you so against those two people? Aren't they your parents?"

"Sure, maybe foster parents," Amara said. "My parents died when I was seven after being crushed by a wooden beam saving me," she explained with a tear in her blue eyes. "So I've been moved from house to house in the foster care system. At least, there's gotta be someone looking for you."

"I hope," Andrew said. "No offense to you, but I can't imagine going through life without parents."

"I take none," Amara reassured. "It's good to know that there are people that actually bother to care about someone."

"Amara, are you a Pokémon trainer?" Andrew asked looking at a PokéBall strapped to her belt.

"Yep, take a look," Amara said throwing the ball onto the ground and then caught it as an Espeon appeared from the receding light. "This is my partner, Espeon. I also consider her to be my only glimmer of hope and my only reminder of my parents."

"How do you mean?"

"This Espeon used to be an Eevee that was raised by my parents and when they died they left this little girl to me," Amara said tearing up again.

"They must've been good people," Andrew said looking out the window and then to an empty PokéBall on the bed. "What's it like being a trainer?"

"It's like being your own maker of destiny," Amara said. "More importantly, how do we know you're not a trainer and you have a Pokémon looking for you right now?"

"If I do, I'd like to give him back his PokéBall. Unless, I'm just a failure as a trainer who can't manage to catch even one Pokémon," Andrew said chuckling and looking down at his tattered shirt and jacket.

Amara giggled looking at the clothes and told him to wait for a few minutes. Andrew smiled watching her leave and looked back out the window and pressed his head up against it.

"A trainer, huh?" he said looking at the PokéBall on the bed.

Returning from another room with a short sleeved red and white jacket with a black shirt and added on a cap for good measure. Leaving the room to another Amara chuckled and then saw the two adults with a long stick. Gasping slightly Amara tried to get into the room to find it locked. Sending out Espeon in a panic Amara told it to use Confusion in the door. Quickly unlocking the door Amara and Espeon ran in to find Andrew no longer in the room and the window opened with the PokéBall gone.

Down below Andrew began stalking a Pokémon he found as a Bulbasaur. Looking at the surroundings Andrew threw the PokéBall off in one direction and it began ricocheting around the area and then hit it on the bulb and then instantly catch it with no resistance from the Pokémon.

Climbing the wall to the balcony Andrew came back up to find Amara and Espeon badly hurt and with multiple bruises. Helping her up onto his shoulder Andrew began carrying down the stairs and past the two adults who barely noticed them. Looking away from them Andrew carried Amara off to a nearby Pokémon Center.

"I know you specialize in Pokémon, but please accept this case," he requested from underneath the cap.

"We'll help her, so don't you worry about anything," the nurse said as they took the two in the back room.

Pacing the floor with Bulbasaur following him Andrew continued to worry about Amara as though she were a member of his family. After an hour of waiting Andrew saw the boy from earlier, Ven, run in.

"What happened to Amara?" Ven asked out of breath.

"I wish I knew," Andrew said looking back at the room.

Ven looked down and then back at Andrew who continued to pace with Bulbasaur still following him. With a Charmeleon standing at Ven's side all four were pacing the room and then sat down.

"Ven," Andrew said. "Where do you go every day?"

"I go to a battle institution for classes ever since my mother died," Ven said. "She gave me my Charmander and then five days later died of a heart attack."

"Do you mind if I come with you?" Andrew asked.

"Why?" Ven asked.

"I know nothing natural caused that attack and I want to fight those people to keep them away from Amara, once for all," Andrew said looking at him with a fire in his eyes.

"Sounds good," Ven said as the nurse came out.

Looking at the nurse she held up a V with her fingers and showed them to the recovery room.

"Amara's a lucky girl, given what happened to her," the nurse said. "I'd like to keep her until tomorrow evening if that's okay."

"Sounds good," Andrew said leaving the center with Ven following. "She was battered viciously," Andrew said stopping in the middle of the room. "Someone believes that they have the authority to determine whether a person can be made into a punching bag," he said tears beginning to form. "And I won't stop until they're locked up like all criminals should be!" he said raising his fist into the air.

The next morning Andrew came inside after training all night with Bulbasaur to find the two adults casually eating breakfast without a care in the world. Ven climbed down the stairs and led the way to the institution.

"What is with those people? They're supposed to be caring for her and they act like nothing has happened. What are they to you?" Andrew asked.

"They're my uncle and aunt; they have a history of being violent and highly abusive to people. Even to me at one point," Ven said. "The fact of the matter is they feel that they are superior to people who are A, mixed ethnicity, and B, without parents. I've been trying to blow their cover for some time now, but they keep on denying everything and without proof I can't do anything. That's why my father told me to stay with them until I could find them out."

"Another thing I've been meaning to ask you; what does your father do for a living?" Andrew asked.

"He's with the police as one of their top officers. He trained me when I had free time and turned me into who I am," Ven said proud of his father.

Reaching the institution the entire building was filled with people working out with Pokémon and then in the center of the courtyard was a large battlefield for practice battles. Taking Andrew to the main hall Ven introduced him to everyone else who all thought he was too young to be considered worth their time.

"I'll battle the kid," a large man with a muscular build said walking up to him. "Just don't crying to Ven when you lose."

"Andrew, don't do it," Ven whispered to him.

"I'll do it!" Andrew announced much to the surprise of everyone in the room.

The man chuckled and Andrew grinned as they took off to the battlefield. On the field everyone in the area was pointing and talking about the idiotic kid who was battling muscle-head.

"Begin!" the referee shouted as the two PokéBalls were thrown.

"Machamp!" the man called out.

"Ivysaur!" Andrew called out sending out the evolved Bulbasaur.

Raising an eyebrow to Andrew Ven crossed his arms and watched the match between the flower and the four armed monster. The Machamp charged and then reached out with two of its four arms at Ivysaur grabbing it and holding it above its head. The referee was about to stop the match only for Ven to put his hand in front of him.

"Watch," Ven said looking back at the battlefield.

Andrew kept the bill of the cap down and then looked at the scene and then nodded to Ivysaur, "Sleep Powder."

Struggling to break free Ivysaur secreted a powder from its flower and then sent it out in full fury quickly making the giant Pokémon drop Ivysaur and fall down asleep.

"Vine Whip," Andrew said.

Extending vines from its flower Ivysaur easily defeated the Machamp based on a clear advantage. The referee called it as Andrew's win and Ven rejoined him on the battlefield.

"Battle me," Ven said looking straight into Andrew's green eyes.

Andrew smiled and nodded as the ref began the next match and the two started off in nothing but silence. Ven made the first move as Charmeleon charged Ivysaur and out of its mouth came a smokescreen. Surrounded in the smoke Ivysaur was in a near panic when Andrew looked at Ven.

"Leech Seed!" Andrew shouted.

Shooting a single seed into the air Ivysaur looked back Andrew as Ven shouted to Charmeleon. Charmeleon charged through the smoke and Andrew simply shouted out to Ivysaur, "Now!"

Slashing the area where Ivysaur was Charmeleon looked around to find nothing and began blowing away the smoke by swishing its tail around to find an entire battlefield filled with Leech Seeds from everywhere to one area on Andrew's side of the battlefield where Ivysaur sat.

"Flamethrower!" Ven shouted to Charmeleon.

Spitting out a constant stream of fire Charmeleon ran right behind it walking through a cleared path from the Leech Seeds. Ivysaur jumping out of the way landed in the field of Leech Seeds and was unaffected. Using the same tactic Charmeleon continued to chase Ivysaur throughout the entire area until both became fatigued. Taking a misguided step into an unattended seed Charmeleon became engulfed in the power and began losing its health gradually.

"Ivysaur, this is last shot!" Andrew said as Ivysaur cringed and jumped up. "Solarbeam!"

Absorbing solar energy Ivysaur let out a mighty sound and shot the beam directly at Charmeleon who was blasted back to Ven's side and fainted almost instantaneously. The referee called it as Andrew's win once again. Both Ven and Andrew fell to the ground in their seats and chuckled to each other.

"That's the most fun I've ever had," Ven said with Charmeleon being returned to its PokéBall.

"I can't say the same, as I don't even who I am," Andrew said doing the same.

"Actually, Andrew I have something for you," Ven said. "Back at home, I'll give it to you. It might help you remember."

Back at the house the two adults toasted with a bottle of wine and clinked the glasses and drank up and left the room up to theirs just as the door opened behind them with Andrew and Ven going up to Ven's room.

Up in the room Ven shuffled through his belongings and produced a large backpack that was the kind slung over the shoulder.

"Is that my bag?" Andrew asked.

"Yeah," Ven said. "Those two freaks gave it to me and told me not to give it to you unless he was ready, which to them means never, but I think you're ready."

Opening and looking through the bag were several things; an atlas, three pieces of stone, and four weighted PokéBalls. Looking at each PokéBall Andrew clicked the button and out of each one came a different Pokémon; Ferrothorn, Gengar, Ninjask, and Hariyama. Surprised and amazed at the amount of Pokémon were in the bag Andrew then turned his attention to the three odd pieces of stone.

Ferrothorn placed a tentacle over his shoulder and the rest of the Pokémon gathered around him and held the pieces of the stone together. Tracing with his finger over the stone pieces and based on symmetry and the angle of incline Andrew slapped his forehead and looked back at pretty much everything.

"How much do you remember?" Ven asked.

"Not much, but I know that I caught all these Pokémon and I'm looking for the final four pieces of that relic to do something," Andrew explained. "Ven, I'm the criminal people are looking for."

"Other than that, nothing?" Ven asked.

"Yes," Andrew said standing up and looking at each Pokémon. "What about Amara? Isn't she being discharged today?"

"Yeah, the two idiots went to go get her, I'm a complete screwball," Ven said realizing what had happened.

"We have to hurry!" Andrew said returning all five Pokémon.

"But what about your memory?" Ven asked.

"My life can wait, Amara's can't!" Andrew said racing down the stairs.

At the Pokémon Center Amara tried to resist being taken back with Ven's aunt and uncle as they kept pulling.

"Nurse, please don't let them take me back there, or next time I won't make it!" Amara shouted as the two made it to the door where the man was pushed back by a giant palm.

Amara looked up and saw Andrew with Hariyama by his side. The woman pulled out a PokéBall and then looked at the surroundings. Amara smiled out of relief and Andrew winked at her and then turned to the nurse.

"Nurse," Andrew said. "Call the police and tell them two things; one, that he have two child abusers and attempted murderers in our midst, and just to make them to come faster tell them that Andrew, the criminal is here."

The nurse hurried to a phone when the woman sent out a Scyther and had it place the blade near Amara's neck. Andrew's eyes dilated as he threw another PokéBall.

"Gengar, Psychic!" Andrew called out.

The ghost Pokémon came out of the PokéBall and then, with its mind, produced a blue aura around the Scyther and moved it up and down repeatedly where it hit the ceiling and floor every time. Gengar then moved its finger forcing Scyther into a wall and then turning to the woman who made a break for a back door only to be blocked by Hariyama. Running to various windows and doors the woman tried to escape only for the exit to be blocked by one of Andrew's Pokémon except Ninjask. Ninjask then came out of a door and began to spiral around and around the woman with a rope in between its pincers tying her up within seconds. Returning all his Pokémon Andrew turned to Amara who hugged him out of relief until they heard the woman laughing beneath them.

"We've gotten away with it before, how is now any different?" she asked.

"Because I'm here," a gruff voice called out from the entrance.

The man had a large moustache and a very muscular build with an leisure suit with a badge clipped to his shirt pocket and began to walk up to the woman as he showed her a voice recording.

Turning on the recording the woman went into a state of panic.

"_Oh come on, Mary, no one's going to find out we practically bludgeoned that foster kid," the man said._

"_You're right, George, besides it was fun to keep her hands over her head while you got her with that stick," the woman said._

Clicking the recording off the man untied the woman and put a pair of handcuffs around her wrists while the man was put in an ambulance while in handcuffs as well.

"Sir," Andrew said. "If you don't mind my asking, who are you?"

The officer turned to him and saluted saying, "Chief Inspector Santiago Martinez, my son told me to give you ten minutes after these guys leave and then I can try to arrest you."

"Tell Ven thank you," Andrew said tipping his hat.

Inspector Martinez returned the favor by tipping his own hat and turned his head away. Amara looked at Andrew as he was about to leave and grabbed his sleeve.

"Thanks for everything," she said leaning over and kissing his cheek.

Barely reacting except with wider eyes Andrew turned to her and simply said, "No funny stuff from now on. You're going to be just fine from now on."

"But can't I go with you?" Amara asked.

"That's a question that doesn't require an answer," Andrew said negatively. "But a random tidbit of information," he said so the inspector wouldn't hear. "The Odd Keystone is a relic said to react to supernatural forces in the center of the rock formation of Stone Hinge in Salisbury Plain in England," he said while winking. "Oh and check this information with Ven, I'm sure he'd be very knowledgeable on the subject."

As the timer began to beep Martinez and the other police officers charged him only for him to float away by Gengar's Psychic.

"For the record, Amara," he said. "I won't ever forget you."

Location: Roswell, New Mexico

Iain and Jon combed the desert line for hours without finding anything while looking at a composite sketch of the Pokémon. Which looked like a three year old could have done better.

"The next time I see Chase," Iain said. "I'm gonna take him to the open sea and throw him overboard!"

"I'll build the plank," Jon said. "For now let's find that secret facility run by Pokémon entirely."

* * *

Chapter twenty one completed. So while he doesn't have his memory completely back Andrew did gain the trust of two people and maybe even someone's affections. Will these two be able to sway him back to life as a solid citizen…if he was one to begin with?

Next time: Looking for conspiracies is a waste of time, but not if it means finding a Pokémon that can take control of technology itself. Next time: In Roswell, Pokémon Catch You; Catching Rotom.


	22. Chapter 22

Here's chapter twenty two of my Pokémon song fanfic. Taking a slight detour from the course Andrew loses his memory and now only has recollection of trying to find the Odd Keystone and that he is a criminal wanted in nearly ten countries. Now getting back on track Iain and Jon travel to Roswell, New Mexico on the premise that there is a secret facility run by Pokémon and their top secret project, Rotom.

**DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NO CONNECTIONS TO POKEMON HOWEVER MUCH I LIKE TO THINK I DO. PLEASE DON'T REPORT ME FOR A SUIT FILE.**

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International Tournament File 022: In Roswell, Pokémon Catch You; Catching Rotom

Running down the halls of a steel lined building Iain and Jon panted all the way as they were being chased by a rolling Electrode. As the Electrode began to gain ground on them Iain looked off to one side and motioned to Jon. Nodding to him Jon turned to the Electrode and pulled on his eye and stuck out his tongue.

"What's wrong, fathead? Can't roll-over a moving target?" Jon asked tauntingly.

A vein popped on the Electrode's face and then rolled even faster and harder and tried all the more to run them over. More focused by his speed Electrode stopped slightly to find them no longer in front of him. Looking back and forth from where it had started Electrode stared at a video camera that looked back and forth and then looked back at Electrode. Blinking twice Electrode looked forward and rolled down the hall.

In a small hallway that led to a supply room filled with nothing but Pokémon food. Sitting down Iain and Jon propped their legs on the bags of Pokémon food and relaxed.

"If only our PokéBalls weren't taken when we got here," Jon said.

"Well the fact of the matter is that we don't," Iain said. "But aside from that, look at this place," he said in amazement. "This place is literally the pinnacle of Pokémon technology. Aren't you glad we took that guy's story seriously?"

"Currently, no," Jon said disgruntled. "Just look what's it gotten us into so far."

"Okay, point taken," Iain admitted. "I will admit this place has a drawbacks; like a giant electromagnet that not only took our PokéBalls, but our belts as well," he said pulling his pants up. "But the fact of the matter is we're probably the only humans ever to see this kind of place in history…minus the old guy."

"Yeah, for good reason," Jon said. "That old guy was so mentally unstable I'm surprised **humans** let him walk the streets."

"But he was right about this place, huh?" Iain said.

"That's beside the point," Jon said. "This entire city is full of people with conspiracies," Jon finished going into a flashback.

_Coming into the streets of Roswell Iain and Jon felt misplaced amongst the people in stands along the farmer's markets selling memorabilia of several urban legends concerning aliens, Pokémon from space, and how either one of them could've taken Elvis with them for private concerts._

"_Okay, I'm leaving," Jon said turning around._

"_Hold it," Iain said placing a hand on his shoulder. "We came here for information, and that's what they're going to give us. I mean come on, we all know that truth is stranger than fiction…but I think Starmies abducting Elvis only for him to be playing the same songs for all eternity is a bit off the deep end, but hey, let's give it a try."_

_Walking past several booths all concerning Clefairy and Starmie and maybe Solrock and Lunatone Iain and Jon found themselves at a stall that was simply an old man with a Xatu sitting next to him. The man looked up and smiled at them and motioned for the two of them to sit next to him._

"_Could I trouble you two boys with a story?" the old man asked._

"_Sure, how about a story about a factory run only by Pokémon?" Iain asked._

_The man's eyes widened and then he laughed looking at the two trainers lifting his eyes to meet Iain's._

"_Not only have heard about it, but I've been there!" he declared._

"_Are you serious!" Iain asked excitedly._

"_Yes, they have a secret entrance in the outlands of the desert, and I'll tell you more if the proper favor is appreciated," the old man said as Xatu pushed a ceramic dish towards both of them._

_After both placing a small amount of coins into the bowl Jon and Iain sat down next to the old man with the Xatu looking down at the three of them._

"_It happened twenty years ago when I worked for a small firm specializing in tabloid journalism. I was the oldest man as an on-street reporter and I was investigating the very facility you're referring to," the old man explained. "It's out in the backlands of the desert, and it's behind an invisible barrier. When I stumbled upon it the Pokémon attacked me and preformed experiments on me and then tried to erase my memory with electricity. I was able to escape with my memory intact, but I promised myself that I would never go there again. Why do you boys want to know?"_

"_We have to find a Pokémon inside its walls; Rotom," Iain answered._

"_Interesting," the old man said. "That Pokémon is there top secret project and they were almost done with its final developments to make it the most powerful electric Pokémon in history. Be careful, those Pokémon don't like intruders."_

_Xatu pointed to the desert to the eastern side._

"_It's over there," the old man said. "Past the sculpture of Stonehenge."_

"_This alien thing is getting old," Jon said in the background._

"_Have you told this to anyone else?" Iain asked._

"_No," the old man said. "I won't make that mistake twice."_

"_Then why tell us?" Jon asked._

"_You could be the ones to defeat Andrew and Spiritomb," the old man said. "This is a sketch of the Pokémon you're looking for," he said handing a piece of paper and then disappearing into a sandstorm_

_Standing there in a daze Jon and Iain looked at each other, and then out into the desert._

_Walking for hours in the eastern direction both began to fatigue in the sun above and then began to think about Chase and both believed it was his fault._

_Iain and Jon combed the desert line for hours without finding anything while looking at a composite sketch of the Pokémon. Which looked like a three year old could have done better._

"_The next time I see Chase," Iain said. "I'm gonna take him to the open sea and throw him overboard!"_

"_I'll build the plank," Jon said. "For now let's find that secret facility run by Pokémon entirely."_

"_Please don't start," Iain said._

"_We've been combing this desert looking for this factory and what have we found? A lot of nothing!" Jon shouted and then tripped._

_Falling over a series of rocks Jon disappeared behind what seemed to be a gelatin. Iain's eyes widened and looked at the gelatin with a slight touch only for Jon to appear seconds later in a daze._

"_Okay," he said. "I stand corrected."_

"_What'd you see?" Iain asked kneeling down next to Jon._

"_When I went in there I found a room in front of me with reinforced glass windows and a whole bunch of Pikachu and Raichu typing away at computers and letting out a constant stream of electricity to power up those computers," Jon explained. "Also, there was a monitor right in front of me that read in big bold letters, 'ROTOM PROGRESS-98%.' They're almost done."_

"_But that can't be right," Iain said. "The old man said they were almost done back twenty years ago."_

"_Maybe it's like a computer," Jon said standing up. "The further along it is in programming it slows done to get to the more complicated programs on it for full effect."_

"_Maybe," Iain admitted. "But nonetheless, we do need to go in there to get Rotom."_

_The two looked at the invisible barrier and both lunged forward going through it. Landing on the main floor of the main floor the two looked around and found the Pikachu and the Raichu typing away at the computers and then stretching in between typing. Trying to sneak past the control room one of the Pikachu noticed their movement and panicked into pressing a large button on the side of the room. The room began to flash red and then shouted out, "INTRUDER ALERT!"_

_A large magnet appeared out of the wall and pulled at Jon and Iain's belt unclipping them and then retrieving them from the two of them._

"And that's how we got here," Jon explained coming back from the flashback. "After they stole our belts they sent out that giant bowling ball that chased us right down to this storage room."

"Yeah, I got it," Iain said getting up. "We better keep moving or we're really going to be in trouble."

Hearing a small sound from the air the two looked up to find an Emolga holding a video camera and snickering. Flailing around the room Iain threw a PokéBall and hit the Emolga on the wing trapping it inside. Putting up a tremendous fight the Emolga tried but failed to release itself from the ball. Iain sighed and picked up the ball and sent out the Emolga.

"Think you can help us?" Iain asked.

Emolga helped up a "V" with its fingers and then flew to a part of the storage grabbing two earpieces that Jon and Iain placed in their ears and then looked at Emolga.

"This should help you," the Emolga said.

Shouting out of surprise Jon and Iain backed up into another box.

"What are these things?" Jon asked.

"We developed them for other life forms to understand our language," Emolga said. "Those are the prototypes so they won't work forever but the project was abandoned for the Rotom project."

"Think you can get them to stop chasing us?" Iain asked.

"Maybe, but only for a little bit," Emolga said turning to the fallen camera. "Sorry guys, my bad, they're not in here."

In the control room the Pikachu and Raichu fell over in their seats looking at the picture of the Emolga scratching his back out of embarrassment.

"Next time, be sure!" one of the Pikachu shouted out.

"Sorry 'bout that," Emolga said cutting off the communication. "That should hold them off for a little bit," he said turning to Jon and Iain.

Sighing out of relief Jon and Iain fell in their seats and then looked at Emolga.

"Can you tell us where Rotom is?" Jon asked.

"I don't know that much, I'm just a sentry so I don't go into the main experiment hall," Emolga explained.

"Well where is this room?" Iain asked.

"In the east wing of the facility," Emolga said pointing out of the storage room.

Following the path out of the storage room Jon, Iain, and Emolga all looked around corners either to find the coast clear or the Electrode still searching for them. Making their way to the back rooms Emolga pulled a map out of a small GPS device under his wing.

"We're about fifty meters from the place where Rotom is being experimented on," Emolga said.

"And here we thought that Americans would never use the metric system," Iain said still following Emolga.

"So what are you guys planning on doing with the Rotom, and is he still an in-progress Pokémon?" Jon asked.

"No, not really," Emolga said. "What I do know is that we're seeing if he can multiply like other Pokémon. Rotom has a special body composed of entirely of sub-solid substance plasma and can enter and take control of a technological device. So far, we've been able to have him possess a microwave oven, dishwasher, refrigerator, electric fan, and a lawn mower."

"Where in the heck did you get a dish washer and refrigerator down here?" Iain asked sarcastically.

"We stole them," Emolga said plainly with Iain and Jon falling over.

"Great," Jon said to himself. "First we got a secret facility run by electric Pokémon who want to kill us, and now we're being led by a bandit, I love it."

"We do to!" a different voice came from behind.

Looking back Jon, Iain, and Emolga looked back to find an entire, for want of a better word, fleet of Pokémon including Pikachu, Raichu, Voltorb, Electrode, Magnemite, and Magneton. Emolga chuckled nervously looking at one of the Pikachu with a scarred ear.

"I guess now is not the right time to ask for a raise?" Emolga asked nervously.

"Attack!" the Pikachu yelled as the other Pokémon in the room lunged forward at Jon and Iain.

Emolga and Iain ran into the next door with Jon standing in front of it.

"Jon! Now's not the time to be a hero!" Iain shouted to him as Emolga continued to lead the way to Rotom.

"We promised that pain in the butt Chase we would find and capture Rotom," Jon said. "If we don't stop them here we don't stop them period."

"Without a Pokémon you're as good as extra crispy!" Emolga said about to run out there with Jon.

"You're absolutely right," Jon said lifting up part of his sleeve.

A PokéBall rolled down his arm which he caught and then threw. The receding light revealed the Pokémon as Gliscor that roared at the rest of the Pokémon.

"I thought you were more muscular than usual," Iain said.

"Just go and get that Rotom! Gliscor, Whirlwind!" Jon shouted.

Turning to face Iain and Emolga Gliscor flapped its wings bring out a large gust of wind that blasted Emolga back to its PokéBall and Iain down the path faster than the Pokémon could follow.

"Alright, guys, I'm your opponent! Earthquake!" Jon shouted.

Gliscor charged the group of Pokémon and forced its body onto the ground causing the entire room to shake and most of the Pokémon being blasted back by it. Gliscor then charged other Pokémon with an X-Scissor attack and roared which was heard from the far hallway Iain had finally stopped flying to and now proceeded to walk the rest of the distance.

"Emolga, how close are we now?" Iain asked.

"This is the door but I never knew how to get it open," Emolga explained.

Kicking the door Iain kept a smug look on his face as the door automatically opened and Emolga's jaw dropped.

"Sure, if I had long enough legs I could've done that too," Emolga said folding his arms.

Going inside the room the entire area was filled from ceiling to floor with large tubes each with an electric appliance inside. In the center of the room was a large holding cylinder with a floating Pokémon seemingly unconscious. Tapping the glass Iain looked studiously at the text below written in plain English.

"It is on everyone's best interest that this project becomes top secret among all other secrets. The process of forcing a Rotom to be able to change forms between the five auxiliary it has access to can be a very slow and potentially painful one. But when all else is done it will be the perfect weapon against our enemies in Team Rocket."

Walking around the room Iain found a small diary and flipped open to the last page written on.

"Date June 17

My worst fear has been realized. Number one, I have become absorbed by my research and my family now remains meaningless to me, number two, the Rotom project is nearing completion and if it succeeds I may be forced to sell it to the man who has been searching for the remains of the Mewtwo project instigated by my grandfather, and number three, the entire facility has been overrun by electric Pokémon that have been afflicted by our machinery and are beginning to take the place. In the future should a person find this, take the Rotom for you and never let anyone get their hands on it.

Sincerely yours, Amber Fuji II"

Iain looked at the glass tank and peeked inside to find the floating figure was floating not in liquid but of its own power. Walking to the other side of the room were two belts with a PokéBall attached to each one.

"Good to have you back," he said to the unopened PokéBalls.

Emolga began pressing random button and appeared to be dancing in the process. Pressing a last button the tank opened up and the form of Rotom looked down at Iain and floated down. Reaching down next to him Rotom slowly pointed its head downward and motioned for Iain. About to touch its body Iain was blasted back by a pressurized water attack straight into the wall.

The Rotom changed from its washer mode to its original form and then to a form reminiscent of the electric fan. Using Air Slash Rotom had pinned Iain down and slashed at his arm almost breaking it. Throwing a PokéBall on the belt Iain sent out Garchomp that faced the Rotom with anger in her eyes. Rotom chuckled and switched back to its original form to one that looked like a refrigerator. Blowing a blizzard at the Garchomp and at Iain Garchomp ran in front of the entirety of the Blizzard and fell to its knees.

"F-forgive me," Garchomp said unaware it could be heard.

"Don't be sorry," Iain said returning it with his good arm.

"Hee-hee-hee-hee," the Rotom chuckled. "A Pokémon and its human, how touching."

"That Garchomp has been more of a parent to me than my real mother, you piece of plasma," Iain said. "How would you know what it's like to watch your friend being hurt and being powerless to stop it?"

"Exactly," Rotom said sneering. 'I don't need friends. I have my power and I have only myself to thank for that."

"Idiot," Iain said. "There was a girl here trying to stop the same people that drove her and her grandfather to insanity. She slaved over your development and that's how you thank her?"

"A necessary sacrifice," Rotom said.

"Let me read you something," Iain said opening the book to a later page. "'But it is in my best interest that when the Rotom be completed he be completely aware of who it is. I don't, no; I won't make the same mistake as my grandfather did all those years ago. Rotom, I want to be a friend to you, but I can't do that until the project is done. When we get the chance let me show you this great hardware store in my neighborhood with as many computers as there are plasma cells in your body. Sincerely yours, Amber Fuji II.'"

Rotom stayed silent and then looked at the pages, "B-but, that's impossible. I was a lab rat, nothing more than a specimen?"

"No," Iain said. "To that little girl, you were the whole world; she thought about you all the time and wrote everything in this book that she felt when it came to you."

Walking away Rotom returned to its original form and placed a _hand_ on Iain's shoulder.

"Is it possible to give back?" Rotom asked out of realization.

"It is," Iain said pushing an Ultra Ball to its body. "But you have to be willing to fight for a cause that will employ every plasma cell of your being to try and stop."

"I accept this responsibility," Rotom said disappearing into the ball.

"Come on, Emolga," Iain said returning it to its PokéBall and grabbing Jon's belt.

Back up on the main floor the head Pikachu and Gliscor were still panting from a long battle when Iain came back up and handed Jon his belt.

"'Bout time," Jon said. "I was getting bored," he said wrapping the belt around his waist. "Well, Pikachu, it's been real."

Falling down and panting Pikachu chuckled and looked up saying, "I think I might get to like humans."

Taking the earpiece out Jon and Iain both sighed out of relief and walked down the desert path to…well, not even they know. Screaming at the top of their lungs both swore they would kill Chase the next chance they got.

Location: Sargasso Sea, Atlantic Ocean

Ashley and Daisy both lied at the bottom of the boat completely sick to their stomachs and both said the same thing.

"If that thing don't show up, I'm going toss my cookies."

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Chapter twenty two complete. Check one more off that list, the current standings are Andrew with three pieces of the Odd Keystone and the rest of the trainers have five out of the fourteen Pokémon. Better make some coffee because it's gonna be a long time to come before the final battle.

Next time: Many legends surround the Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic. One of which being that it is a home of the most fearsome creatures ever; the sea serpent. Sure it's all fun and games to talk about, but when you find yourself as part of that legend watch out. Next time: Yo-Ho-Ho, and a Great Big Scream; Catching Gyarados.


End file.
